Book 5, 2021

Murder by the Slice by Livia J. Washburn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I only had two chapters left in my book at work; therefore, I brought it home yesterday and finished reading it. The book was Murder by the Slice by Livia J Washburn. It's the second part of her "Fresh-Baked" mystery series. Narrative is in third person, but it primarily follows retired school teacher Phyllis Newsom.

Phyllis gets roped in to helping a local PTO with a fund-raising carnival when her friend and housemate, fellow retired teacher Carolyn, convinces Phyllis to join her. One of the first things Phyllis realizes is that the president of the PTO, Shannon Dunstan, is a witch with a capital B. Nevertheless, she and Carolyn agreed to help, and they stick to their guns. They are tasked with the bake sale portion of the fund raiser. While Phyllis and Carolyn are manning the booth, Shannon is murdered in a school hallway. It's determined the murder weapon was one the women had been using to slice cakes and other baked goods. When the police, including Phyllis' son Mike, seem to focus on the wrong person, Phyllis can't help but do some sleuthing on her own.

I picked this book up at a second-hand store, and I'm glad I didn't pay more than $2.00 for it. First of all, Phyllis owns a large house, and she rents rooms to three other retired teachers: Carolyn, Eve, and Sam. It's kinda-sorta like the Golden Girls, except Sam is a guy. Throughout the book, however, I found myself wondering if this was a household of mature adults or a junior high cheer camp. Eve has the hots for Sam (who does nothing to encourage her behavior), and she became an outright shrew whenever she discovered that Phyllis and Sam had the audacity to be alone somewhere, even in the kitchen. Good grief. On top of that, Carolyn and Phyllis were uber-competitive when it came to their baked goods, to the point that I felt like knocking their heads together and sending them to their rooms. Second, when Phyllis was baking, the author felt it necessary to provide in-depth play by play of every step of the process. All I need to know is that she mixed the batter and put the cake in the oven; I don't need to read about how she measured out each ingredient and mixed them together and prepared her pans and blah blah blah. Third, when Phyllis suspected that Shannon was having an affair with the husband of one of the other PTO moms, she took it upon herself to question him about it. OMG, it is not your job! Tell the police and butt out. Fourth, even when writing in third person pov, the narrative should follow one character. In this book, however, a few chapters (just a few, mind you!) were from Mike's pov. Just no. Finally, the blurb on the back of the book strongly indicated that Phyllis would need to clear her name, since she'd touched the murder weapon, but she was never once under suspicion. Way to be misleading about the plot! Oh, one more thing: there was a cat on the cover of the book, but no cat was found between the covers of the book. Misleading!

Favorite line: "When it comes to death, women bring food and men carry the coffin."

I won't be reading any other books in this series. The writing was fine, but I did not find Phyllis a likable character, and I won't waste any more time reading about her brand of sleuthing.

Three stars

Book 6, 2021

Merit Badge Murder by Leslie Langtry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



In addition to finishing my "work" book last night, I also finished the one I'd been reading at home. It was Merit Badge Murder by Leslie Langtry, which is the first in the "Merry Wrath" cozy mystery series. Story is told in first person pov by the main character, Merry, who is a retired CIA agent trying to assimilate back into society.

Having been outed as a CIA agent, Merry Wrath had to give up her career in espionage. She's changed her name and appearance and returned to her hometown in Iowa, where she keeps busy hanging out with her childhood BFF Kelly (who knows her story) and helping to lead a troop of Girl Scouts. Her life has become bland, boring and predictable until an al-Queda agent shows up dead at scout camp.

Merry finds this highly suspicious (an al-Queda agent in Iowa?!), and when she hits a Colombian drug lord with her car and kills him it seems that someone is targeting her. Merry's former supervisor, sexy Riley, arrives in town to help her investigate and to hide her involvement as a former spy. In the meantime, the new hot neighbor across the street turns out to be the detective in charge of the investigation into the death of the drug lord, and Merry ends up saddled with a former KGB agent, whom she turned to a spy for the CIA. Lana is voluptuous and beautiful, and Merry alternates between hating her and feeling sorry for her, especially when it turns out that Lana may have been the target all along. Things really get dicey when a Yakuza agent winds up dead in Merry's kitchen. She may have been out of the game for a year now, but Merry hasn't lost her skills. It's up to her to flush out the secret agents in town, take care of her own, and bust some heads while she's at it.

This story was a flippin' hoot! I laughed all through it and enjoyed the hell out of it. Merry is like the girl next door, but she's a complete badass when the situation warrants it. I had a heck of a time trying to figure out who was behind all of Merry's misfortunes, waffling between Lana, Riley, and even Rex (the detective). Characterizations were wonderful, dialogue was scintillating, and Merry's inner dialogue was witty and fun.

Favorite lines:
♦ I'm sure the irony would be lost on him that in death he really was surrounded by seventy-two virgins. Did it matter that they were grade-schoolers, I wondered?
♦ Troop Leader's Helpful Hint Number Two--when talking to little girls, always smile. They cry if you don't. I'm not kidding. You don't know real terror until you've stared at the watery eyes and rubbery bottom lip of a cute kid.
♦ On the drive home I was congratulating myself on my foresight and thinking this might lead to some day buying a whole quart of milk, when I ran over a man.
♦ Well, maybe that meant he was here to ask me out. He must've seen me drive up in the dented, bloodstained car, my face covered in crumbled Oreos and thought--now that's a woman I need to get to know!
♦ She wailed in a voice that somehow made it seem like I was strangling kittens in front of school children.
♦ That was the Midwest answer to anything uncomfortable. Bring a casserole. It was the ultimate 'I'm sorry/congrats on the new baby/I have no idea what to say but I can bake' thing.
This is absolutely true!
♦ "Twinkies will make this better!"
♦ When other kids played capture the flag, I spied on them and gave misleading information to both sides, selling them out for M&M's, quarters, and the occasional kitten.
♦ What I read made me more terrified than when I found out I'd accidentally eaten the wrong part of the blowfish.
♦ We'd stand out in a salad joint--mainly because I would be dramatically crawling across the floor, begging for greasy food.

This book reminded me quite a bit of the "Charley Davidson" series by Darynda Jones. In fact, I think Charley and Merry would be boon companions. I was sorry when this one ended, and I will most certainly be reading more in the series. Highly recommended!

Five stars!