An Interview with Krista Davis by E. B. Davis

  

Old Town Virginia’s entertaining guru and occasional sleuth Sophie Winston – a young Martha Stewart in the making – juggles Fourth of July fireworks, a houseful of guests, and homicide in the latest Domestic Diva culinary mystery from New York Times bestselling author Krista Davis.

With a big crowd descending on her Northern Virginia home, it’s a good thing event planner Sophie Winston is an expert at entertaining. Whipping up patriotic pastries is as easy as pie for her, though meeting the man her widowed Aunt Melly just impulsively married in Las Vegas is a little more awkward. Especially when Melly’s longtime, now-heartbroken secret admirer is there too, which could lead to some fireworks.

But the house party really gets explosive when Sophie’s favorite tour guide falls victim to a killer—and evidence points to Sophie’s own father. Will DNA really incriminate her dad? And what’s the real story with her new uncle-by-marriage and the mysterious pal he’s brought along with him? Some of the secrets Sophie’s discovering are raising flags—and while the police department casts suspicion on her father, she has to declare her independence as a detective to find the real culprit, and serve justice along with her red, white, and blue cupcakes . . .

Amazon.com

 

Krista Davis’s Domestic Diva mystery series never gets old for me. It’s more like coming home to friends and family. The Diva Hosts a Murderer is the nineteenth book in the series and was released yesterday. The story takes place over the Fourth of July in Old Town Alexandria. I was glad for the heat given off in the book since it’s been a cold spring, and it made me long for the warmer days of summer, soon to come, but not soon enough!

 

Second-chance romances versus the single life seem to be a topic that Krista explores for the middle and older characters in this book. It’s an interesting topic with no one answer as the characters find. And there are a lot of characters because Sophie is hosting her family: mother, father, sister, plus an aunt with her newly-wed husband and his friend, along with two men from Sophie’s hometown of Berryville, VA, where her family still lives. With that crowd, even a domestic diva can find being the perfect hostess problematic.

 

Please welcome Krista Davis back to WWK!                      E. B. Davis

When I started to read, I thought this was the first book in which you showed Sophie’s family. But over the years/books, you must have brought them into the story. Did you?

They were in the first two books and then occasionally showed up in holiday books.

 

Does Hannah, Sophie’s sister, still live with her parents in Berryville?

 

Hannah has been living in Berryville but not with her parents. She’s been in transition, spending a lot of time in Old Town, but not with Sophie!

 

Is Sophie being nosy by wanting Hannah to account for her whereabouts in the wee hours of the morning or is she just being an older sister?

 

Sophie lets her sister be an adult and do her own thing. But when someone comes home closer to the crack of dawn, and the bars closed at 2AM, it’s natural to wonder where she has been.

 

Sophie and Hannah don’t seem to have much in common. Is Sophie the extrovert and Hanna the introvert?

 

They just have different interests. Sophie loves entertaining, after all, she’s a professional event planner. But Hannah is a computer whiz.

 

Nina’s pathologist husband is usually off testifying somewhere. Although he doesn’t stay for long, he does make an appearance. Has he been in other books before?

 

He makes his sole appearance in this book! After all, it’s a holiday so he’s finally home for a few days.

 

Why does Officer Wong dismiss Sophie’s older neighbor Dollie’s account of seeing a dead man in her house?

 

Dollie has a record of calling the police to report sounds like creaking floors and footsteps in the night. But there’s never anyone there and no sign of a break-in, so the police think she has an active imagination. Her family has owned that house for generations, so there’s always the possibility of ghosts or just a creaky old house.

 

Are the Masonic Temple and the Apothecary Museum real and open to the public?

 

Yes, they are! Old Town Alexandria is often on lists of great places to visit. Good food, lovely old architecture, and loads of history. One of the popular restaurants was a hospital during the Civil War. And for history buffs, Alexandria found itself between the South and the North, so it was packed with spies!

 

Why did Natasha throw a 1820s costume party?

 

The 250^th celebration of the Declaration of Independence was coming up. Natasha was all in with a huge party. She asked guests to dress in the type of clothes people would have been wearing at the time. Even the menus were based on a typical dinner in the 1820s. Natasha always has a scheme in mind and this is another one of them.

 

What was the story about burying politicians in unmarked graves so their enemies wouldn’t find them and then the locations of the unmarked graves were lost?

 

The most notable story (true or false, it’s a fun legend) was about John C. Calhoun from Charleston, who was the Vice President of the United States twice. The story goes that he died in Washington DC and was buried there. But due to the Civil War, they feared his foes would disturb his grave, so in the dark of night they dug him up and moved him to an unmarked grave. His wife then asked that he be moved to Charleston, but apparently there was some confusion about which grave he was actually occupying at that point. Eventually, they dug him up again and moved him to Charleston. But he had been born upstate, not in Charleston, so he was buried across the street from the church, in the Stranger’s Graveyard for visitors and non-locals, not in the proper cemetery. Eventually, he was dug up again and finally moved to the St. Philip’s Episcopal Church cemetery.

 

It's a story that a lot of tour guides enjoy embellishing.

 

After her father is arrested for murder due to his DNA found on the victim, Sophie researches DNA evidence and finds that it may not be conclusive evidence since DNA could be spread by mere contact and not necessarily during the time of death. Since the victim was Sophie’s family’s tour guide, they were on his bus and in his proximity for several days. Would the police arrest him on just that evidence?

 

They did, based on the DNA. There is a difference between DNA from skin cells and DNA from blood, which yields a higher quantity and quality.

 

What is a Dunlap Broadside? Why do they call them that?

 

Remember that we’re talking about 1776 when there were no computers or copy machines that could copy papers in a minute. So a Philadelphia printer named John Dunlap churned out 200 copies overnight. They were the very first broadly distributed copies of the United States Declaration of Independence, now referred to as Dunlap Broadsides. Today, there are only 26 known copies still in existence. But every once in a while, one turns up in a basement or box of old papers. The last auction of one brought in $8.14 million.

 

What’s the difference among a buckle, crisp, cobbler, crumble, and a betty?

 

That’s a tough question. They are all baked desserts with fruit. According to the Farmer’s Almanac and St. Louis Magazine, these are the distinctions. https://bit.ly/42Iwc0H and https://bit.ly/4ulsGFG

 

A buckle has a streusel topping. The berries are folded into the batter.

A crisp usually has oats in it. Often confused with a crumble. It has a crumb topping and sometimes nuts.

 

A cobbler has a biscuit topping, sweetened fruit, and spices.

 

A crumble never contains oats, unless it does. Major confusion on this issue!

 

A Betty is like a crisp but has no oats. There are crumbs inside as well as on top in a buttery crumb topping.

 

Whew! Still confused? Me, too. LOL! They’re all delicious!

 

What’s next for Sophie?

 

Hmm. I don’t want to reveal any spoilers, but a lot happens in the next book! Stay tuned!

Libby Klein's Gimme Shelter: A Review by E. B. Davis

  

For Vader, my emotional support puppy. And Tony, my emotional support human.

I’d thank the cat but she’s really just in it for herself.

                                                                        Libby Klein, Gimme Shelter, Dedication

 

As the song says, you can’t always get what you want. Maybe that’s why, instead of fulfilling her youthful dream of being a rock star, Layla Virtue is living in a trailer park while playing third-rate gigs, including a stint at a seventies ABBA brunch. Given everything else she’s been through lately, she’s not complaining (much) about satin ruffles and go-go boots. She has a squad of supportive new BFFs, and she’s reclaimed a relationship with her famous rocker dad. His recent diagnosis has brought them even closer—sharing the trailer park’s lake house, which he’s had remodeled in typically over-the-top style.

Layla’s dad loves his new community and the feeling seems mutual. So, why is one of them blackmailing him? It’s a mystery almost as baffling as the assignment Layla receives from her former commissioner. Look into the brutal murder of a mild-mannered school teacher. Archie Wilkins was bludgeoned with a candelabra, shot up with drugs, and stuffed into a church confessional. Not the kind of outcome expected for a guy reputed to be the world’s nicest.

Perhaps Archie had secrets. Perhaps everyone does, including Layla’s one-time cop colleagues. She’s been blaming herself for a deadly ambush that destroyed her career and her peace of mind, but as her new friends help Layla regain her memories, a different picture emerges, and it’s one that forces her to question so much that she’s taken as truth . . .

Amazon.com

 

There’s something about Libby Klein’s humor that just hits my funny bone. I laughed through most of Gimme Shelter starting with the above dedication. I was happy to see that Libby had started a new series, although I was also dismayed that I missed the first book, Vice and Virtue, which was released April, 2025.

 

In this book, the backstory and plot intersect for character-driven mystery resolution and provides the impetuous for the next book’s plot. Because Libby has two other subplots, those are solved, but while the character-driven main plot comes to a head, the truth isn’t fully revealed.

 

Libby’s main character, Layla Virtue, is the daughter of a rock star, a former police detective, and she is an alcoholic—like her father. In Gimme Shelter, we get the backstory of how Layla was thrown off the force when her sting operation ended in disaster, an explosion that ended the lives of her team. Layla wasn’t killed because she was dead drunk in a bar during what was supposed to be the takedown of a drug syndicate. She’s down on herself big time—and yet—what she thinks happened may not be the truth. Her posse of gals she met at Alcoholics Anonymous prod her to find out the truth. In addition, her old police commissioner asks her to get information about the murder of an elementary school teacher who seemed to be everyone’s friend.

 

In her personal life, rock-star Dad has dementia and has moved from Malibu to the Northern Virginia trailer park that he bought for Layla. He fixes up the one real house on the property by bringing in his CA designer. She turns the house into a fairy tale/Hobbit house. His dementia is coming on fast, which is worrisome to Layla. But the other man in her life, an ex-marine fresh from three tours in Afghanistan suffers from PTSD. They are attracted, but the time is not right for fresh starts. Not until each of them can slay their demons. Hopefully, they will help each other’s conquests.  

 

Layla is a strong character, and the secondary characters display a variety of human pitfalls that beleaguer mankind from dementia, alcoholism, PTSD, drug abuse, criminality, and the frailty of human relationships. I hope this series takes off. Libby’s writing is superb. 

 

 

An Interview with Susan Van Kirk by E. B. Davis

  

When Susan Van Kirk drove into little Monmouth, Illinois, in 1968—straight out of college, with her teaching degree in hand—she thought she was ready to teach English and speech to high school students. She didn't realize she would both teach and be taught by a town, a school, and the students who entered her life. A veteran of forty-four years of public high school and college teaching, Van Kirk will take you on a passionate and unforgettable journey through one teaching life. Meet her students and experience the events that molded a rookie teacher into a veteran. This montage of stories covers the years 1968 to 2008; they describe her early fears about classroom discipline, plots to overthrow "the rookie," handling drug overdoses, the devastating first student death, and a challenge to a major Kurt Vonnegut book in her classroom.

Mr. Vonnegut and Me (And Other Incredible Tales from a Teaching Life) is a second edition, and Van Kirk has added a new introduction plus updated material about where the students from the stories are now. These fifteen stories are incredible, inspiring, and filled with what makes us human.

Amazon.com

 

I’ve read all of Susan’s books, except Mr. Vonnegut And Me. Why? I guess I’m not much of a nonfiction reader, and that’s what surprised me. I started to read slowly and ended up being engrossed by her stories. For me, the times in which she taught were my history. Her first year of teaching was 1968, the year I entered 8^th grade, so when I got to high school, I might have had Mrs. Van Kirk as a teacher had I lived in Monmouth, IL.

Susan covers topics she dealt with while teaching: sexism, diversity, racism, classroom discipline, family backgrounds, pregnancy, politics, etc. We learn how much these affected her teaching and how they impacted her students.

 

This 2026 release allowed Susan to update her stories and follow her students after they left the high school, which I found very interesting, like seeing the before and after.

                                                                                                                                   E. B. Davis

 

Did retirement prompt you to reflect on your teaching, resulting in the book?  When was the book first published?

My memoir was first published as The Education of a Teacher (Including Dirty Books and Pointed Looks) in 2010. It was the first book I ever wrote, and the thought that I could write a book came about through a college professor and a college student. I was getting my master’s degree at University of Illinois, and I took a class called “reflective teaching.” The purpose was to reflect on how my values and beliefs affected the way I taught. The professor wrote on one of my papers, “You have a wonderful voice, and this story is incredible. Have you ever considered writing a book?” No, I hadn’t. Then, one of my college students said the same thing, only he was referring to an inspiring story I’d told about why teaching was an amazing profession. He suggested I write it so people who wanted to teach could read it. I did. And a magazine picked it up immediately and published it. I thought to myself, “I’ve taught for four decades and I could write a memoir that might explain what it’s like to teach.” I chose fifteen stories that were funny, sad, poignant, and thought-provoking. That became this book.

 

Is Monmouth, IL, the prototype of Endurance, the town in your first series? Why is it called “The Maple City?”

 People do, indeed, see aspects of both Monmouth and my home town, Galesburg, in my Endurance series. History is ubiquitous here. The Underground Railroad, a Lincoln-Douglas debate, Beecher Chapel (named for the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe), the birthplace of Wyatt Earp, and the extradition hearing of the Mormon leader, Joseph Smith, were all parts of our area history. My Endurance series has a lot of Midwest history as part of the setting. Monmouth is called the Maple City because it was founded in 1831, and maple trees lined the streets of the town. Western Stoneware, our internationally-known pottery company, used a maple leaf in its logo.

 

Did your kids have trouble due to your teaching at their school? How about grading their papers?

 I taught my three children two years in a row. Fortunately, they were excellent students. We had a deal. If they had problems or concerns with other teachers, they solved those problems themselves. If they heard rumors or gossip, they didn’t tell me. They did their own homework, and I imagine they occasionally heard thoughts about me from other students in my classes. But overall, those were smooth years. It was more difficult having the children of my friends.

 

In deciding which stories to include in the book, you asked yourself which students changed your teaching and you. How do you think you changed your students, such as John Critser?

This is a long answer! John’s story, “War and Remembrance,” was the first one I wrote that was published by Teacher Magazine. It illustrates the theme of the book: the profession of teaching puts you in a position to change students’ lives, hopefully for the better. John and I had a conversation after school that I didn’t remember until twenty years later when he told me about it at a reunion. He was a junior in high school trying to decide what to do about enlisting during the Vietnam War years. He would have a number in the draft lottery, and he was having moral concerns about killing people. On the other hand, he felt he should do his duty to his country. He stopped in to see me after school on a day when I’d received a telegram that a close friend from college had been killed in that war. I was not the usual “Ms. Van Kirk” who stayed as neutral as possible in class discussions about current affairs. (I’d always encouraged my students to think for themselves and back up their beliefs with logical arguments and evidence.) But that day after school, I was a mess. I didn’t remember, years later, our conversation. But he did. And more than that, he remembered how that death affected me. The next year, he made a decision to go to college, hope not to have his number called, and if it were, to become a conscientious objector. As it turned out, his number was not called before the war ended, and he went on to become a world-renowned research scientist, and, unlike me, remembered that conversation with his weeping teacher. He told me at his twentieth reunion that but for our conversation he might have enlisted, died in that war and never married, had children, or done life-saving research. For many years, we met for coffee when he came back to visit his mother. From him I learned that sometimes you change your students’ lives by tears rather than by Shakespeare.

What quality drew the troubled girls to you? Did they see you as a strong single mother or as a teacher they could trust?

Both of these girls, names changed, came to my house to talk to me over Christmas break. They had some serious problems and felt they couldn’t talk with their parents about them. One had recently discovered she was pregnant, and the other stated she was being abused by a foster parent. At the time, I was going through a divorce, and they’d silently watched as I’d lost weight, been preoccupied, and seemed sad. I think they believed I’d understand their very serious problems. I imagine they saw me as trustworthy and someone juggling a lot in my life. Their stories illustrate yet another moral dilemma. As a teacher, I couldn’t tell them what to do. I was legally required by the abuse situation to turn it in to child protective services. I did. The other was a situation where it was up to the student and her parents to make a decision about her pregnancy. I convinced her to talk with her parents, and we used role-playing to decide how she’d do this. Their stories illustrate some of the moral dilemmas teachers face when dealing with teenagers.

 

Trying to maintain discipline in the classroom led to nightmares for you. Did this problem get better with time and experience?

Absolutely it did. When you see my photo on the book cover, I was twenty-two. It was my second year of teaching, and my students were 17 or 18. Maintaining discipline was a real learning curve. Eventually, I was able to balance a sense of humor with definite rules and outcomes. I was never a friend to my students. I respected them, and I would say they respected me. Over the years, I learned that balance. This is why people are a much better teachers as time goes by. Experience really makes a difference.

 

Was your personal life affected by the expectation of professional behavior and decorum outside of school? 

It definitely was in a small town, especially when I first started teaching. I couldn’t walk into a bar, and if I went out to a restaurant with friends and had a drink, it was all right. But if students were working there, they might see me, and it would be discussed with their friends. Because I was married, I didn’t have to worry about the dating game and students talking. But teachers back then were held to a higher standard. There was a moral turpitude clause in our contracts, and being picked up for a DUI would definitely end a career.

 

When one set of parents tried to censor the reading of Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, I wondered about their daughter. You didn’t influence her selection of the book. You allowed her to pick another book. You never knew how she felt about the book. Do you know what happened to her?

No, I don’t. Her parents still live in town, and I see them occasionally. Their daughter left town and has a life somewhere. I believe she got caught up in that situation and possibly lied, telling her parents she was required to read the book for my class. She wasn’t. I’m certainly not naïve enough to believe teenagers always tell the truth when they might get into trouble. It was a book she selected. But the parents really blew it all up and went to the principal, superintendent, the media, the school board, and didn’t talk to me. I would have given her a different book. But it was way-out crazy by the time it all ended after six weeks. And one of my children was in the class, so she was his friend. Now that was a difficult line to manage. It was a textbook case of a book challenge.

How did you connect to those featured students to find out how they led their lives?

I knew a student in town who knew “where all the bodies were.” I found many of them via social media, but if I couldn’t, she helped me find some of them. A few had kept in touch with me. One had passed away last year, and that was a blow. I knew the city where he lived and came upon his obituary. Mostly, the internet was very helpful. I don’t always say that! It was amazing to reconnect with them and hear how their lives had gone. They are doing incredible things, and they came from such a tiny town. Midwesterners from small towns are often known for their kindness. They sure showed me that continued to be true.

 

Why is it that some people determine their futures and others drift without direction? Is it family background, talent, or personality?

Good grief, Elaine. If I knew the answer to this question, I’d bottle it and make millions. It’s a combination of all of those things plus a bit of luck along the way. One of my children went to college not knowing what he wanted to do. He thought about teaching, but I knew that wasn’t for him. He drifted in that direction. But finally, through classes and reflection, he ended up in a job that was perfect for his personality. In his case, college exposed him to a lot of possibilities, and he was open to testing it all out. So, sure, it’s those items you listed. But never discount luck. I often enjoy going back to reunions of my former students because I enjoy hearing what happened to them after school.

 

Would you change anything in your career and/or student interactions if you could?

I was very fortunate. I could usually find positive qualities in most of the students I taught. Teaching was the perfect vocation for me. I wish I could have gone back to graduate school before I had a family. But in those days, the social pressure was to marry and have children. And once I became a single mother, going back to school was impossible. On the other hand, graduate school after all that experience made my understanding of education discussions richer. So, who knows? I wouldn’t exchange those years for anything.

A Review of In the Spirit of French Murder by E. B. Davis

  

After moving to France, Tabitha Knight has a new friend in fellow expat and Cordon Bleu student Julia Child, whose culinary tips can come in quite handy. But something’s cooking in postwar Paris, and it isn’t just cheese soufflé…

Tabitha has enjoyed an entertaining afternoon in Julia’s kitchen, but her return home is a bit jarring. As she arrives at her grandfather’s rue de l’Universitémansion, a woman bursts out the door babbling about messages from spirits and a warning Grand-père must heed. Oncle Rafe angrily sends the woman on her way, and neither man will answer Tabitha’s questions.

It’s not the last she sees of the mysterious visitor. While she’s on a date that evening, she’s accosted by her again—and learns that Madame Vierca is a medium who claims to have visions of a dark fate that awaits Grand-père and Oncle Rafe. The very next night, Tabitha’s messieurs host a soiree at their new restaurant, inviting fellow Resistance fighters from the war known as the Nine Bluets. To commemorate the work of the Resistance network, the vase on the dinner table sports nine of the pretty blue flowers.

But shortly after the revelers leave the restaurant, one of Grand-père’s old friends is found dead on the street . . . and one of the nine flowers is missing from the vase. When a second member of the Nine Bluets is found poisoned the next day, and a bluet flower is left with the body, Tabitha cannot ignore Madame Vierca’s frightening predictions about her dear messieurs. She has no choice but to share her suspicions and fears with the enigmatic and unruffled Inspecteur Merveille.

Tabitha soon finds herself caught up in an investigation that takes her and Merveille to the seediest, most dangerous parts of the Left Bank—home of strange, fantastical legends, disquieting events, and unusual people. As she and Merveille desperately try to find a killer, they know they don’t have much time before the rest of the Nine Bluets are targeted . . . including Grand-père and Oncle Rafe.

Amazon.com

 

In the Spirit of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge, the fourth book in the An American in Paris Mystery series, will be released by Kensington today. I’ve previously interviewed Colleen Cambridge, who writes two other mystery series. She’s a busy writer so I chose to review this book instead.

 

I loved In the Spirit of French Murder because the plot and backstory were tied together. By solving the mystery, main character Tabitha learns more about her grandfather and uncle, their trials and tribulations of working for the resistance during WWII and the often-sad consequences of their doing so. Julia Child, Tabitha’s neighbor and American cohort, doesn’t appear as often and isn’t a part of the solution, which I missed. Instead, Tabitha confides in Inspecteur Merveille, her heartthrob, who gives her subtle clues that he, too, feels attraction.  C’est si bon!    

 

A project left over from the last book in the series, Grandfather’s and Uncle Rafe’s restoration of a restaurant to pre-WWII conditions, wiping out the memories of Nazis who claimed it during the preoccupation, is now complete. The plot engages when they celebrate the restaurant’s opening by inviting their resistance working group, called the Nine Bluets (nine blue flowers). Tabitha connects the deaths of those attending as, one by one, they are murdered. She fears for her grandfather’s and uncle’s lives, motivating her to find the guilty party.

 

There is an element of mysticism due to a medium who predicts the deaths and the appearance of the Old Man Who Appears After Midnight, a Parisian legend, who makes his presence known to Tabitha. He tells her why evidence disappeared without a trace, just as he does. She is bewildered, and yet glad to have experienced his legend and explanation.

 

Colleen Cambridge’s books epitomize what Parisian mysteries should be. The tone of her books illustrates the style and charm inherent in the City of Lights, mysterious unto itself. When Tabitha solves the present crime and anticipates the budding future, the glory and horror of the past is revealed, set on top of a city that is much more than what is seems.  Santé!     

The Poisonous Pour by Maddie Day: A Review by E. B. Davis

  

Since moving from L.A. to California’s verdant wine country, widowed single mom Cece Barton has gone from Colinas wine bar manager to wine bar owner—with a chaser of sleuthing . . .

It’s Memorial Day weekend and Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley is buzzing with activity. For Cece, business at Vino y Vida is going great, as is her romance with new beau, Benjamin. Meanwhile, Cece’s neighbor, Richard Flora, is stirring up controversy with his newest article, an exposé of Regan Greene, power-hungry director of a valley district organization. Also in the mix is the town’s big classic car show, paired with wine tastings . . .

At the show, Cece spots Regan, who is displaying her restored green ’72 Thunderbird convertible. As Cece pours tastes, she witnesses several heated discussions with Regan—including an argument with wine afficionado and new Colinas hardware store owner Greg Jardis. Otherwise, all goes smoothly—until Sunday brings shocking news. Regan has been murdered . . .

Rumors fly that Richard may have orchestrated the homicide—or even committed it. But Cece knows that’s absurd. And others in Cece’s orbit seem to have discomfiting connections to Regan, from Cece’s employee, Dane, to her winemaking teacher’s sister, Yolanda, to Colinas Mayor Guittierez. And after Yolanda visits the wine bar, Benjamin says he recognizes her from a road race.

Determined to clear Richard’s name, and failing to extract any clues from detectives, Cece once again enlists her twin, Allie, as her partner-in-sleuthing. But they’ll have to act quickly, before the trail goes sour . . .

Amazon.com

 

A Poisonous Pour is the third book in Maddie Day’s (Edith Maxwell) Cece Barton mystery series. Kensington will release it on April 28^th.

 

I am at a disadvantage because I missed reading the first two books. From the current book, the reader derives that Cece Barton has moved to Colinas, CA, in wine country, after her divorce to be with her twin sister, Allie, a real estate agent. Although Cece is described as a single mother, her daughter is an adult, studying in Japan, so we don’t see much of that aspect in Cece’s character. Cece now owns a wine bar in the center of the historic district housed in an adobe building. Most of the wines she serves are from local wine makers. A big question I have is how Cece managed to own the bar, which was formerly owned by the town, for free—an arrangement somehow orchestrated by Allie. But then, that question may have been answered in a previous book.

 

  

At a town car show where Cece is displaying her 1966 Ford Mustang, she witnesses Regan Greene, the director of a regional organization, have arguments with three people, including one of her two servers at the wine bar, the town’s mayor, and the new owner of the hardware store. Regan is
murdered the following night. When Cece investigates Regan’s office, she discovers that her assistant hated her and doesn’t mind a bit that she’s dead. Eventually, the instrument of the murder is discovered to be poisonous wine, but anyone could have injected poison through the cork so that clue doesn’t eliminate suspects.

 

One character I loved is Cece’s ninety-two-year-old neighbor, Richard Flora, a former journalist who still writes the occasional feature. Cece and he find friendship in their backyard gardens where Cece’s two cats wander. One of Richard’s recent articles focused on Regan because of her clashes with the town government. Richard is at first considered a suspect because of his article, in which a sharp perspective on Regan’s management is apparent, but town detective Kelly Daniell gives him only a brief glance.

 

Henry and Ed are a married couple and friends of Cece’s. Henry owns an art gallery. Ed owns a local diner. Both host venues for Cece to investigate and trade informational tips.

 

Another character I loved is Ouro, a golden retriever, who is owned by JJ, a female friend of Cece’s and a vintage car mechanic. He hangs out at the shop with JJ and protects her at her yurt, where they live. Ouro helps Cece when the villain threatens her.

 

The book was a cozy likeable read with a rich backstory and enough twists that it kept me captivated until the last page. The question that remains, which will motivate me to pick up the next book in the series, is what Cece’s beau Benjamin does for a living. His job is a secret!   

E. B. Davis

The Most Mysterious Bookshop in Paris by Mark Pryor: A Review by E. B. Davis

   

 

Cover blurb from Amazon:

Hugo Marston, former head of security at the U.S. embassy in Paris, has retired and is ready to realize his lifelong dream of owning a mystery and antiquarian bookshop. But when a blackmail scheme targeting a chocolatier leads to murder, Hugo is again called to investigate in the first Paris Bookshop Mystery for readers of Charles Finch, Tasha Alexander, and Lev AC Rosen.

Hugo has led an exciting life as an FBI profiler and the US embassy’s head of security, but now he’s ready to embrace a quieter existence as a bookseller in the Marais district of Paris. His former employer, however, has other plans for him. A prominent American citizen is the COO of a boutique chocolate emporium in Paris, where they’ve received a mysterious and threatening note. A blackmailer who goes by the name The Shadow wants half a million euros or else their “darkest secret will be revealed.”

Eclat de Chocolat is housed in a chateau dating back to the 1700s. The building, which served as a convent in the first half of the twentieth century, where the angelic Sister Evangeline and her order of nuns helped countless orphans during World War II, has been beautifully converted into a chocolate factory. So what dark secrets could a chocolatier be hiding? The COO has no idea.

Involving his friend, Lieutenant Camille Lerens, Hugo begins to investigate. But soon a second note appears on the premises, canceling the blackmail threat. The same day, the body of an employee is found in an old graveyard behind the chocolatier. Now Hugo and Lerens have a murder on their hands, but is it connected to the blackmail attempt? As they dig for secrets and motives, it becomes clear The Shadow’s grave work has just begun . . .

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This is the first book in the Paris Bookshop Mystery series by Mark Pryor, which will be released on March 31st. As a new reader of Mark Pryor’s, I felt the title was a bit deceptive after reading the book. The cover looks cozy enough, and it is a cozy in that there is no violence or death directly shown in the book. But the main character, Hugo Marston, is not cozy. He is retired and he does buy a bookshop in Paris, but he spends very little time there. He is not the typical shopkeeper found in most cozy mysteries. As a former FBI behavioral analyst (profiler) and then head of the American Embassy’s security, he’s too knowledgeable and hard-core to be a cozy main character. Even when the story takes place in a boutique chocolate factory, the story still isn’t cozy. The book was not what I expected. Not to say that I was disappointed, but more of that later.

 

After reading the book and researching author Mark Pryor, I found that Hugo Marston is not a new character, but a main character returning in a new mystery series. In 2012, Mark Pryor’s first book in the Hugo Marston Novel Series (comprised of nine books), The Bookseller was released. In this series, Hugo is not retired. He is the head of the American Embassy’s security and the cases he solves are directly related to his job. The last book in this series was released in 2020.

 

Six years have passed. In the current Paris Bookshop Mysteries, Hugo is older and now retired from the embassy, but due to his relationship with the Ambassador, he works on problems that cross the Ambassador’s public and private helm. Such is the case in The Most Mysterious Bookshop in Paris, in which an acquaintance of the Ambassador and English owner of a chocolate factory is being blackmailed. Most blackmail notes are pointed; the guarded secret is obvious. That isn’t the case here. The chocolate is a new and upcoming brand that has just been granted a Royal Warrant by King Charles of England. It’s an important kudos that will help launch the business. What I didn’t know is that most chocolate makers buy premade chocolate, called couverture, and use it to make or coat different filling flavors. When the English owner reveals that she buys her coverture from a German company and that might be the “secret” referred to in the blackmail note, Hugo doesn’t think that is a big enough secret to be a source of blackmail. The owner disagrees because even in present-day Paris, there is animosity dating back to WWII against Germany.

 

Hugo works with a transexual friend who is a midlevel Paris detective and a junior detective to solve the blackmail. Then, when a chocolate employee’s body is found on the factory grounds, they solve the murder case. Since Hugo doesn’t have the limitations the police have, they use his autonomy to further the case. Hugo relies on the policemen to get search warrants that he has no legal right to get. The dialogue among Hugo and the two detectives is humorous and honest. Hugo also has a journalist/sometimes girlfriend who gets information on cases, which turn into her stories. But he uses her position and case exposure to gain power with principal suspects via the pressure of the press.

 

Yes, I had no problem reading the book as a first-time reader, but I also think the author and publisher should announce the new series as a continuation of the old series at a later stage of the main character’s life. It felt a bit of a cheat when I realized that the character was already developed in nine previous titles. The author has established more than enough background/relationship details to write a strong mystery. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was a page-turner.

Mother of the Bride and Mystery Writer by E. B. Davis

  

I’m helping my daughter enact her wedding plans because she is getting married on the beach on Hatteras Island, where I live, in June, followed by a reception at a wine bar/deli located a few miles away. It’s a casual wedding and the guest list is under forty people. The bride and groom are in their mid-thirties, so we pretty much let them dictate their wishes except that we insisted on paying (since we’d like them to save their money for a house down payment) and that guests be given a choice of entrée since not everyone loves fish, which, of course, is the best on Hatteras Island. As a mom, I think I’ve fulfilled my duties. But as a mystery writer, I haven’t yet begun. The groom’s sister-in-law has shown herself to be a diva and her daughter, a diva in the making. Should one be the victim?

 

But then I realized that there might be better victims, and I wanted to play the villain when I realized that

Rocky trying on his tux!

the NC Methodist Church took a week in June to have its conference and ordination ceremonies, and yes, it was the very weekend of my daughter’s wedding, and our young pastor was to be ordained that day, the last day of the conference in Raleigh, five hours away from Hatteras. I try not to ask hard questions, like what were they thinking? June being the most popular month for weddings—none of the pastors in the church are available due to internal business—statewide? Why not a miserable week in January? Luckily, I found our last minister, who retired nearby, to conduct the ceremony, but I’d still like to take my rolling pin to a few heads.    

 

My next victim was the National Park Service that requires a permit for beach weddings as all of the beach here is owned by the Federal government. I finally got one for the special event, as they term it, but hoops were jumped through in obtaining one. (And yes, money, too.) Dare County also requires couples to obtain a wedding license within a month of the ceremony. The only way to get one is to apply in person, Monday-Friday 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, regardless that many couples from out of state get married here (a big revenue source) who work during those same days/hours. I’m not sure what they will do. I guess they have to take off work (cutting into their honeymoon time) drive four hours to get to our county seat and drive four hours home. Yes, the bureaucracies can’t have hours or extended time making it a bit more user friendly. I’ll let them be the perps on that one.

 

I ask myself when should the body appear? During the ceremony washing up on the beach or discovered by a guest behind the dunes? Maybe Rocky, my daughter’s dog, will find the body or his cousin, Biscuit, the white Standard Poodle. Will the body appear on the deli’s wide front porch sitting on the wicker couch? Or will someone be poisoned during the reception? The MC, me, will have to investigate to clear the caterer of wrong doing. Or maybe I’ll make my daughter the MC with her new spouse and their trusty dog to help investigate.

 

It’s no wonder so many cozies are set during weddings. What is your favorite wedding mystery?

On A Positive Note By E. B. Davis

I talked with my sister by phone on Sunday. She isn’t particularly religious or spiritual so I was surprised when she told me the story of her friend Mark. Here on Hatteras Island, we have weathered dark, cold, and windy days for weeks. Her story about Mark was uplifting, which is the reason I’m sharing it with you. We don’t discuss politics on WWK, but on occasion we refer to religion. Take from it what you will. For Christians, Lent is a time of healing. This is Mark’s story.

 

Mark, in his early 60s, had been diagnosed with kidney failure along with liver problems. He had been hospitalized for most of the summer of 2025. In the fall, they released him to go home, but he had a team that came in to give him daily dialysis and then taught him to do it himself overnight while he “slept.” No, he didn’t get much sleep because he was in constant pain. He was on the recipient list for a new kidney, and possibly, a new liver as well.

 

Last week, my sister drove him to the University of Virginia Medical Center, where he was to undergo more tests and then meet with his medical team, which included nursing associates, social workers, and his primary specialist, a doctor of Indian origin. In the meeting, the doctor asked Mark what his physical complaints were. Mark answered by describing new cramping and other affects from the dialysis. The doctor looked at Mark and asked, “Do you believe in Jesus?” Surprised, Mark replied, “Yes, I talk to him constantly.” Then, the doctor said, “The reason for your new complaints is that you are getting dialysis for kidneys that have been healed. You no longer need dialysis and will be taken off the recipient list for kidneys. Now that your kidney is functioning normally, your liver problems seem to be minor.”

 

Mark is still in shock. We all are. We really thought he was going to die.

 

It was clear that the doctor felt a miracle had occurred or he wouldn’t have asked Mark about his beliefs. I think Mark received a miracle of divine intervention.

 

If you were to write a story about this event including it in your fiction, would you call it supernatural, spiritual, or miracle fiction? Or, would doing so be blasphemous?

 

Something For The Easter Basket By E. B. Davis

  

Since 2018, I’ve been reading Leslie Meier’s holiday themed anthologies. Each anthology contains novellas or novelettes of about 100 pages each. It’s hard to estimate length on Kindle where locations are given without page or word counts. So far, Lee Hollis has consistently written one of the two other stories. Peggy Ehrhart or Barbara Ross have provided the third. The start of this year’s anthologies is Easter Egg Murder, which was released yesterday by Kensington Cozies.

 

The authors write within the perspective of their series’ main characters, providing side trips to different venues, historical background details, and the continuation of backstory. Leslie Meier’s main character is Lucy Stone, part-time reporter in Tinker’s Cove, Maine; Lee Hollis’s is Hayley Powell, restaurant owner in Bar Harbor, Maine; Peggy Ehrhart’s is Pamela Paterson, textile expert, and Bettina Fraser, small-town newspaper columnist, both of Arborville (we assume Maine).

 

Prior to 2018, the anthologies featured authors Joanne Fluke, Leslie Meier, and Laura Levine. Reading the anthologies always gets me into the spirit of the holiday celebrated within. Some of the older ones are now on Kindle Unlimited.                                                                                                                        E. B. Davis

 

 

EASTER EGG MURDER by LESLIE MEIER

 In Provence to visit her daughter, part-time reporter Lucy Stone is soaking up the atmosphere, even if it includes one Carole Capobianco, the empty-nester she encountered on the flight over. Not exactly two peas in a pod, they’re both amused by the tale of a neighbor’s chickens refusing to lay eggs. The decoy eggs he’s set out to encourage the egg-centric hens are not only gorgeously Faberge-style, they’re being stolen! That’s confusing enough, but what’s happened to the cook is deadly serious. 

 

DEATH BY ANOTHER EASTER EGG by LEE HOLLIS

When an ambitious young reporter dies mid-meal at Hayley Powell’s Bar Harbor restaurant, Hayley is horrified. Determined to save her eatery’s reputation, Hayley scrambles to crack the case wide open like an egg, discovering that the victim was about to break a juicy story—one that a number of people (er, suspects) did not order off the menu. Which makes finding the killer more than devilishly hard . . .

 

AN EGGY WAY TO DIE by PEGGY EHRHART

Cleaning up after the Easter egg hunt in the Arborville park, friends Pamela and Bettina are startled to find something else hidden—the dead body of a local cookbook author, surrounded by broken shells and slippery yolks. The pair are far from hard-boiled detectives, but as they search for clues, they find that the whole case smells distinctly like rotten eggs . . .

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