IT'S A WONDERFUL KNIFE by Christine Wenger 

THE GRIM STEEPER by Amanda Cooper

IT'S A WONDERFUL KNIFE

Book 5 in the Comfort Food Mysteries

by Christine Wenger 

Comfort food and murder are on the holiday menu in the latest mystery from the national bestselling author of Macaroni and Freeze . . .
 
All Trixie Matkowski wants for Christmas is a break—just not the broken leg she got after slipping on some ice. With Sandy Harbor alive in the hustle and bustle of the season, it’s the busiest time of the year at Trixie’s Silver Bullet Diner. There are millions of things to do, including cater the town’s annual Christmas pageant and community dinner with some delicious holiday comfort food.
 
But the festivities turn into a bit of a turkey after Liz Fellows, the director of the pageant, is found with Trixie’s butcher knife in her back. Now Trixie must help the police arrest the scary gentleman—or lady—guilty of the crime if she hopes to get herself off the naughty list.

MY REVIEW

IT’S A WONDERFUL KNIFE serves up a heaping helping of mystery with a side of fun!

I really adore this series. The characters, the setting, everything about it appeals to me.

Protagonist, Trixie Matkowski isn’t perfect, but she’s real. She’s good and kind, but also plucky and feisty. I always have a great time when I visit with her and the townsfolk of Sandy Harbor. Indeed, author Christine Wenger makes me feel a part of the Comfort Food Mysteries when I read them.

The author’s creativity leads the reader through an amazing mystery, filled with twists and turns. She had me second guessing myself more than once all the way to the action abundant reveal.

IT’S A WONDERFUL KNIFE, and the other four titles in the comfort Food Mysteries are comfort reads that will leave you hungry for more!

Thirteen delicious recipes, and an excerpt from DO OR DINER, the first book in this series, can all be found at the back of the book.

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THE GRIM STEEPER 

Book 3 in the Teapot Collector Mysteries 

by Amanda Cooper 

The national bestselling author of Shadow of a Spout invites readers back to the Finger Lakes town of Gracious Grove for more tea and murder...

Mid-October in the charming Finger Lakes town of Gracious Grove means it’s time for the annual Fall Fling Townwide Tea Party. The highlight of the festivities is a roaming tea-tasting, which includes a stop at Auntie Rose’s Victorian Tea House. Sophie Taylor would like to share her enjoyment of the event with her sort-of boyfriend, English teacher Jason Murphy, but Jason’s dean has accused him of falsifying grades to help an athlete at the local college. Steamed and stressed, Jason shows up the night of the party with bags under his eyes.
 
But the dean shows up under Sophie’s Japanese Maple later that night, murdered, and now Jason is suspected of far worse than fudging grade reports. It’s up to Sophie, her Nana, and their friends the Silver Spouts to pore over the clues to find out who really decided to teach the dean a lesson.

MY REVIEW

THE GRIM STEEPER is a great plot infused with wonderful writing!

Another lovely installment of the Teapot Collector Mystery series, THE GRIM STEEPER is an excellent story steeped in mystery and drama.

Author Amanda Cooper has penned another must read story in this mystery series for tea lovers, and all mystery fans. Spending time in Aunty Rosie’s Victorian Tea House is always a great way to spend the day. The setting paints lovely images in my mind as I read. And then a pesky murder happens. Okay, so that where the fun begins!

A very tight plot that kept me guessing with every turn of the page, THE GRIM STEEPER is a fantastic story that really held my attention. I didn’t want to put it down.

Truly another must read from Amanda Cooper aka Victoria Hamilton!

A yummy recipe, and descriptions of tea strainers and infusers can be found at the back of the book!

AVAILABLE 

February 2!

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BOOK TOUR

I'm so excited to be a stop on the blog tour for 

author Avery Aames 

and her new book

FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE 

Book 7 in the Cheese Shop Mysteries 

by Avery Aames 

In the new Cheese Shop Mystery from the Agatha Award-winning author of As Gouda as Dead, an extra-sharp tongued cheese critic is cut down during a summer cheese festival.

It’s time for the annual Cheese Festival in Providence, Ohio, and Charlotte Bessette’s cheese shop is packed with homemade specialties. Meanwhile, her friend Erin is prepping her dairy farm and inn for cheese makers, marketers, journalists, and one surprise guest—Lara Berry, pretentious cheese whiz, pompous bestselling author, and pungent critic whose extra sharp tongue can crumble a reputation. 
 
Even though any love for Lara by her friends curdled long ago, Charlotte is surprised when the foodie is smothered to death in her room at Erin’s inn. Accusations start flying, but the one laying blame on Erin strikes Charlotte as a crock. Now, to clear her friend’s name, Charlotte has to sift through Lara’s ex-lovers, former business partners, and unforgiving enemies to find a killer before Lara’s past casts a tainted pall on the festival’s future.

RECIPES INCLUDED

Comparing the Leads in Two Mystery Series

By Avery Aames aka Daryl Wood Gerber

This recipe for cheese popovers is something that the lead in my Cookbook Nook Mysteries, Jenna, could make. If you don’t know Jenna, she’s not a whiz in the kitchen. She’s learning. Why? Because growing up, her mother did all the cooking. Now, she’s pretty good with a simple, 5-ingredient recipe.  And she’s even tried some 10-ingredient recipes! What she is, is a marketing whiz. She has an eye for detail.

Now, Charlotte, the cheese monger in the Cheese Shop Mysteries, could make these little tasty treats in her sleep!  She’s cooked all her life. She enjoys it. She even loves to experiment.

Both Jenna and Charlotte adore their friends and family and would do anything to make sure they are safe, which is why both are amateur sleuths.

Because these popovers are so pretty, they might seem daunting, but they’re not. You can make these with regular flour, but I made these gluten-free so any of my readers that need to eat GF can enjoy them, too.  I did invest in a popover cooking pan, which made them even easier to bake, though I tried them in a cupcake pan and that worked pretty well.

Remember to really grease the individual cups so the popovers, um, POP out! They’re perfect as a snack, and perfect as a compliment to a salad or any meal.

Say cheese!

Are you a cook or an order-out kind of person?

CHEDDAR CHEESE POPOVERS

Gluten-free

Ingredients:

3 eggs

¼ cup heavy cream

1 cup 1%-2% milk

1 1/4 cups sweet rice flour & potato starch mixture, sifted

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon white or black pepper

3 tablespoons butter, melted

3/4 cup sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Generously butter 6 cups in a popover pan or 6 six-ounce custard-style cups.

In a large bowl, beat eggs well with mixer. Stir in the milk and cream.

Add gluten-free flour, xanthan gum, and spices, and beat until smooth.

Stir in melted butter. [NOTE: This will be a gooey batter, like biscuit batter.]

Fill cups 1/2 full with batter. Top with cheese (about 2 tablespoons each) and add remaining batter.

Bake 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 275 °F and bake another 5-10 minutes, until deep golden brown. These are luscious right out of the oven. Like all gluten-free breads, they get a little “doughy” by day two if kept in the refrigerator. However, I kept them out of the fridge, wrapped in foil, and the next day reheated them in a 200°F oven for about 10 minutes. They were delish!

*NOTE: I made these without cheese and they were delicious, too. Very fluffy.

www.escapewithdollycas.com

*****!!!GIVEAWAY!!!*****

Winner will be chosen after January 31

at the end of the tour

Check out the great prize and enter using the Rafflecopter form at the end of this post. 

This giveaway is through Great Escape Book Tours, not Lisa Ks Book Reviews.

MY REVIEW

A delicious mystery, author Avery Aames is a true artisan in the cozy mystery world!

Sadly, like so many other wonderful series this past year, the Cheese Shop mysteries have some to an end with FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE being the last. It will be missed.

Each and every chapter of FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE made me hungry for more. Literally! Being a cheese lover, I could smell and taste every offering that was mentioned. But I also hungered for more and more if this amazing plot.

Well written, as always by author Aames, this installment of the Cheese Shop mysteries was filled with scene after scene of excitement and surprises. And not only entertaining, but as with all the other books in this series, informative.

With this last story in the series, Avery Aames has done an amazing job of letting us spend time with these wonderful characters. She has taken this series to the height of enjoyment, and given the character and readers a satisfying, if bittersweet farewell.

You’ll find the back of the book packed with yummy recipes, and there is an excerpt for GRILLING THE SUBJECT a Cookbook Nook mystery by Ms. Aames under her real name, Daryl Wood Gerber!

FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE 

will be available February 2 

Pre-order now!

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by 

clicking on the link in the 

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GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BONUS

*****!!!GIVEAWAY!!!*****

When a copy of 

FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE 

usint the Raflecopter form below!

Winner will be chosen after January 31

at the end of the tour

Check out the great prize and enter using the Rafflecopter form at the end of this post. 

This giveaway is through Great Escape Book Tours, not Lisa Ks Book Reviews.

GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DEARLY DEPARTED by Hy Conrad 

STIFF COMPETITION by Annelise Ryan

DEARLY DEPARTED 

Book 2 in the Amy's Travel Mysteries 

by Hy Conrad

Fanny and Amy Abel, the dynamic mother-and-daughter owners of a NYC travel agency, have just booked their biggest trip yet. But with danger in the air, the itinerary may include murder... 

Paisley MacGregor, a maid to the rich, made a dying request to send all of her wealthy employers on a first-class wake to spread her ashes around the world. Amy has her suspicions about these "mourners," especially when one has a life-threatening "accident" at the first stop in Paris. And when a mysterious American stranger tagging along with the group has his ticket punched in the shadow of the Taj Mahal, Amy knows she may have a killer on her tour. 

Who was this stranger, and what's the connection to someone in her group? Digging for clues while continuing on with the trip is a lot for Amy to manage, especially when another mourner has a possibly fatal encounter with a Hawaiian volcano. Back in the States, Fanny and Amy start to piece together a secret worth killing for, but someone is hot on their trail, and ready to send them on a one-way trip--to the morgue!

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STIFF COMPETITION 

Book 7 in the Mattie Winston Mysteries 

by Annalise Ryan

Every fall, hunting season in Sorenson, Wisconsin, leads to some accidental injuries. Deputy coroner Mattie Winston just hopes the hunters don't bring any more business to her office. But somebody seems to have declared open season on land developers. One real estate developer who's recently come to town has been found dead in the woods with an arrow through his neck. Now it's up to Mattie to get to the bottom of the killing. That might be easier if she wasn't also hunting for Detective Hurley's teenage daughter, Emily, who has suddenly disappeared. With a homicidal William Tell out on the loose, Mattie is desperate to find Emily before the killer notches another arrow. . .

Both of these great titles are available 

January 26!

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by 

clicking on the link in the 

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ARSENIC AND OLD BOOKS 

Book 6 in the Cat In The Stacks Mysteries 

by Miranda James 

Lucinda Beckwith Long, the mayor of Athena, Mississippi, has donated a set of Civil War-era diaries to the archives of Athena College. She would like librarian Charlie Harris to preserve and substantiate them as a part of the Long family legacy—something that could benefit her son, Beck, as he prepares to campaign for the state senate.
 
Beck’s biggest rival would like to get a look at the diaries in an attempt to expose the Long family’s past sins. Meanwhile, a history professor is also determined to get her hands on the books in a last-ditch bid for tenure. But their interest suddenly turns deadly, leaving Charlie with a catalog of questions to answer. Together with his Maine Coon cat Diesel, Charlie must discover why the diaries were worth killing for before he too reaches his final chapter.

MY REVIEW

ARESENIC AND OLD BOOKS, indeed the entire Cat In The Stack series, is told from the perspective of the lead character, who in the case is a man. I’ve never read a cozy with a male lead before. I found it to be refreshing. Charlie Harris is an enjoyable character, and I love his interactions with his Main Coon cat, Diesel, and that Diesel is readily accepted into so many places. He goes everywhere!

There are a few fun supporting characters as well, such as Charlie’s girlfriend, Helen Louise, his housekeeper Azalea, and his friend and co-worker, Melba, plus a few others.  

As for the mystery, it too was different from others I have read in cozies. While he was at the center of things, Charlie didn’t play a real big role in the solving part of this one the way most protagonists do. While it was a good story and mystery, everything seemed to wrap up rather quickly at the end. I kept waiting for a little action and/or the big “ta-da” moment, but they never really came.

AVAILABLE in Paperback 

February 2!

Available now in Hardcover

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

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DARNED IF YOU DO 

Book 18 in the Needlecraft Mysteries

by Monica Ferris

The USA Today bestselling Needlecraft Mysteries have shown that when it comes to murder, Betsy Devonshire, owner of the Crewel World needlework shop, doesn’t mess around. But when a local hoarder is murdered, she’ll need all her wits to dig a new friend out of a heap of trouble…

After a tree falls on Tom Riordan’s house, landing him in the hospital, the police discover a mountain of junk piled high in his home. Locals in Excelsior, Minnesota—including Betsy Devonshire and her Crewel World Monday Bunch—offer to help with the cleanup while Tom recuperates. 

But when Tom is found murdered in his hospital bed, the sole heir to his property—his cousin Valentina—becomes the number one suspect. Betsy believes there’s more to the case than meets the eye, but finding clues to the killer’s identity in the clutter Tom left behind will be like looking for a needle in a haystack…

MY REVIEW

This eighteenth installment of the Needlecraft Mystery series starts out with a bang! No, really. It starts with a raging storm, and a tree falling on someone’s home. And that’s just the beginning of the excitement.

Ms. Ferris has managed yet again to add a fresh take on a long running series. I don’t know how she does it, but the author always finds something new to get into for her protagonist, Betsy Devonshire and Betsy’s Crewel World Monday Bunch.

As with her past books, DARNED IF YOU DO is very descriptive, ensuring that you “see” things as they happen while you’re reading. You can’t help but visualize the scenes.

The mystery was filled with plenty of twists and turns, keeping me guessing. And once again, as with the book before this one, book seventeen in this series, THE DROWNING SPOOL, I had no idea who the killer was until Ms. Ferris spelled it out for me.

The needlecraft project in this installment is for a crochet pattern for Classic Lace. You do not have to know any sort of needlework to read this book, but it sure makes you wish you did.

AVAILABLE in Paperback 

February 2!

Available now in Hardcover

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by 

clicking on the link in the 

upper right hand corner of this page.