ATTENTION ICE CREAM AND MYSTERY LOVERS!

SCOOP TO KILL

by Wendy Lyn Watson

(Published by OBSIDIAN MYSTERY, an imprint of the Penguin Group)

This is the latest in the mystery a' la Mode series featuring Tallulah Jones. I enjoy Wendy's work. This is a "cozy mystery", but with enough plot to keep the reader interested and turning pages. I like to escape and a book like this one lets me dive head first into "small town Texas."

Tallulah "Tally" Jones is the owner of an ice cream parlor, Remember The A' La Mode, in Dalliance, Texas. A small town by any one's description. Tally finds herself with dead bodies and a love life that's as complicated as a homicide investigation.

In the latest novel, Tally's niece, Alice stumbles upon the body of a graduate student during the annual Honor's Day festivities. Suspicion immediately falls on a female English professor, Emily Cowper, but the body count continues to rise and it's a double dip of murder!

Wendy also uses some delightful recipes in the novels. She is a real ice cream lover and the recipes are given in the book. I think I will try a couple and let you know how I do!

Click here to hear the interview with Wendy Lyn Watson.

ATTENTION BRITISH MYSTERY LOVERS!*

An Impartial Witness

A Bess Crawford Mystery

by Charles Todd

(Published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins)

I do enjoy the twists and turns of a good mystery! I also love to play "Sherlock Holmes" to see if I can figure out who-done-it before the author tells me.

This novel is a period novel set in World War I. Bess Crawford is a battlefield nurse who nurses wounded British soldiers on the battlefields of France. Due to a simple coincidence of being in the right place at the wrong moment, she finds herself in the midst of a murder and intrigue.

Bess witnesses a tearful farewell in a train station between a soldier and a woman. Did she recognize the woman as the wife of one of her burn patients from France? Who was the man? Why was he so cold to the woman?

If you enjoy the English mystery novel, you will enjoy this one written by the mother and son writing team who call themselves "Charles Todd!"

Listen to my interview with Caroline and Charles Todd.

*One of my TOP 10 MYSTERIES TO COZY UP TO A FIRE AND READ picks.

13 1/2

By Nevada Barr

A family is murdered, a mother, a father, a little girl. The murder scene is gruesome and blood-soaked, but there are two survivors, 11 year-old Dylan Raines and his older brother, Richard.

Dylan doesn't have a scratch on him, while Richard's leg has almost been severed. Dylan's inappropriate behavior at the crime scene and during the trial leads the police investigating the murder, the news media and everyone else to the conclusion that Dylan is the murderer. He is called "The Butcher Boy," and convicted.

The significance of the title: One judge, 12 jurors, half a chance.

The book traces the life of Dylan and Richard Raines from the night of the crime, through Dylan's incarceration, to the time when Dylan is released and the brothers start a new life in a town where nobody knows them.

Polly Farmer grows up in a trailer park with a mother who drinks heavily and drags a series of boyfriends home. Polly runs away to New Orleans to escape. The novel traces Polly's journey from sexually abused teenager in a trailer park to her success as a respected professor and mother of two.

In mysterious New Orleans paths cross and broken pasts collide at a breakaway pace. No one and nothing is what it seems. Murder is once again a part of the scene. Who will die? Who will live? Who is truly guilty?

Wow, this stand-alone novel from New York Times Bestselling Author Nevada Barr kept me turning the pages. I love to read and discover what's on the next page. I couldn't read this book fast enough! This is a brilliant story with so many twists and turns of plot, you will be intrigued from page 1. What do you think?

To hear my interview with Nevada Barr on my internet radio show INSIDE THE WRITER’S CAFÉ on webtalkradio.net, click on the link:

http://webtalkradio.net/index.php/show-hosts/3213-inside-the-writers-cafe-hosted-by-cheryl-nason

All shows are available on-demand, so you can listen when you want to. If you find an interview with a favorite author or one you particularly like, you can go to I-Tunes and download it free.