Review - Murder Marks the Page

 The first in a new series spun off from the Daisy Tea Garden Mysteries, Daisy’s daughter Jazzi Swanson has opened her own book and tea shop, providing a variety of literature and flavored beverages for a rural New York community. But Jazzi has not only inherited her mother’s gift for brewing tasty drinks—she also has a nose for sniffing out murder.

Author: Karen Rose Smith

Copyright: March 2024 (Kensington Cozies) 272 pgs

Series: 1st in A Tomes & Tea mystery series

Sensuality: mild

Mystery Sub-genre: Cozy, Amateur Sleuth

Main Characters: Jazzi Swanson, owner & operator of Tomes & Tea

Setting: Modern day, Belltower Landing, a lakeside resort town in New York

Obtained Through: Publisher for an honest review, Netgalley

 Book Blurb:  "New York State’s Belltower Landing is a lakeside resort town where tourists spend their summer days boating, floating, and paddle-boarding on the water. It’s also the perfect place to cuddle up with a good book and enjoy a cup of tea, courtesy of Tomes & Tea. Owned and operated by Jazzi and her best friend Dawn Fernsby, the book bar is beloved by vacationers and locals alike, but browsers grabbing brews in the off season aren’t enough to help them make ends meet.

     Between brainstorming social media publicity ideas for the shop and fending off flirtatious men she has no interest in or time for, Jazzi befriends a woman named Brie who has recently made contact with her biological father. As an adopted child herself, Jazzi is more than happy to give Brie emotional support, especially as her wealthy father’s wife and children see her as a threat.

     But Brie is also looking to start a family of her own. Unfortunately, all the potential princes she’s met through a dating app turn out to be frogs. Then, when Brie is found murdered, Jazzi finds herself playing detective. With a list of suspects ranging from jealous half-siblings to less-than-suitable suitors, Jazzi may need to consult some of her shop’s bestselling mysteries to help her uncover a killer . . ."

My Thoughts:

Jazzi Swanson is out of college and co-owner of Tome and Tea bookstore and Tea spot.  She is young but determined and a reluctant sleuth because her mother, Daisy Swanson from Daisy Tea Garden Mysteries, was known for investigating murders.  Dawn Fernsby is best friend, business partner, and roommate.  In many ways Dawn and Jazzi are more like sisters.  Oliver is a local upscale pub owner from Australia and a potential romantic interest.  Parker is a bookclub participant and software applications developer who, although very subtle, I see as a potential romantic interest as well.

The mystery has plenty of suspects and Jazzi never intends to investigate but ends doing so anyway.  I like the lake setting woven throughout the story.  The climax had some harrowing moments as the killer is revealed and Jazzi is in danger.  A subplot is extra efforts to bring in more business to the bookstore which provides a touch of realism about the business through the story.  A deligtful touch is Jazzi adopting two adorable kittens.  

Rating:  Excellent - A fun read-it was good.

Musings - New Year's Vision Board

 A vision board is a collection of images and words that symbolize your goals, dreams and visions of success for what you want to accomplish.

Joyce Marter contributed to HuffPost these thoughts on Vision Boarding:

Think of the idea of "self-fulfilling prophecy. Over and over again, I have seen that if we anticipate an outcome, it is more likely to occur that way because our thoughts precede our behaviors. As author Wayne Dyer said, Our intention creates our reality.”

Determine your vision for the coming year as the first step.

Getting Started – Focus on What YOU Want your life to feel and look like.  Stretch, if there were nothing -- nothing at all -- to hold you back, what would you like your life in the next year to be like?  If there were no limits?  Consider these areas of life for some inspiration:

• Financial – Money, wealth, and budget

• Relationships – Close friends, family, and close colleagues

• Network – Professional connections, greater community

• Physical – Places and things like where you live, travel, artwork, furniture, etc.

• Personal – projects, hobbies, self development,
and fun

• Body – Your energy, health, appearance, and clothing, planned down-time

• Self – Strengths, talents, and character

• Spiritual – Deep connections and sacred spaces

• Nature –  The great outdoors and retreats  

A theme may emerge, and you don't have to include every area listed.  You may decide to do one vision board for personal life and one for career/business life.  Make this fun and play with the opportunity to envision a great year ahead how you really would like to see it with no limits.

Get more specific.  Many people think in big concepts such as I want to travel more, I want love in my life, I want a better job.  But envision what that actually looks like.  Where is the first place you want to travel to? Is it a national park, Paris, or a place of family significance?  What should that love life be like? Respectful, a true partner, romantic or practical?  That job you want, is it an easy commute, better pay, a respectful boss who encourages growth and challenges you or lets you do your job without interference?  Get into what it really means to you and put that on your vision board.

Buy a poster board, cork board, or large paper and gather together pictures and words from magazines, Pinterest, or other print images you find on the internet or maybe draw/paint your own to symbolize and represent your goals.  I have even seen Vision Board Kits available on Etsy and even vision board clipart books on Amazon.  Yes, there are online-digital versions of vision boards, too.  Canva has several vision board templates.

Next, gather scissors, glue, maybe decorative paper and washi tape, and markers.  Set aside a good hour or two with a space where you can spread out images you've gathered and work uninterupted.  Make it relaxing - a mini retreat - with some inspiring music, maybe some candles or essential oils.  

It can be an organized layout with right angles and columns/sections or it can be loose with some overlapping and images at odd angles.  It's completely up to you.

This is also an activity that can be done as a family and teaches children to dream and envision for their future.  Also, check your library and local events for vision board workshops.

It's best if you place your completed vision board somewhere that you can see it regularly to remind you of your vision, soak into your subconscious, and give consideration and attention to it over the next year.  Where is that place for you, an office or personal space? If you opted for an online-digital vision board, find a way to print it out and display.  

So consider the placement and size you'll need.  Also, take a photo of it to keep on your phone, maybe use it as the background for your computer.  I have also seen a vision book similar to a scrapbook, but again it should be someplace accessible often to look at.  

As your dreams are realized, write the date on the image on your board. At the end of the year, review your vision board and circle the images that manifested, so over time you have an on-going record of your fulfilled dreams.

Enjoy the new year, may fantastic books be part of your great year ahead.  Let me know in the comments your vision board tips and tricks and how vision boards have worked for you.

Review - The Curse of Penryth Hall

If you are a fan of the gothic books from the 1960s thru the 1990s by Victoria Holt, Norah Lofts, Dorothy Eden, Joan Aiken, and many others then you will likely really enjoy this novel.  This debut work won the Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel competition.  

The gothic atmosphere is deliciously laid out like a banquet.  This line sets the stage: "The old Cornish folkways predate even the Romans.  There are things that occur there no one can explain, no one dares."

Author: Jess Armstrong

Copyright: Dec 2023 (Minotaur) 329 pgs

Series: 1st in Ruby Vaughn mystery series

Sensuality: mild, innuendo, adult situations referenced

Mystery Sub-genre: Historical cozy, Amateur Sleuth

Main Characters: Ruby Vaughn, Heiress-prior WW1 ambulance driver and runs a bookstore for an octogenarian

Setting: August 1922, Cornwall, England

Obtained Through: Publisher for an honest review, Netgalley

 

Book Blurb:  "After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She’s always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she’d never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall.

A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby’s once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It’s an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth’s bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn’t believe in curses—or Pellars—but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next victim: Tamsyn.

To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night."

My Thoughts:  I grew up (10 years and on up) reading gothic romances of the sixities, seventies, eighties, and even nineties.  I have wanted more recent gothics with a newer writing style to take the gothic genre to new heights.  This is the best of the old gothic stories with updated takes and suspense.  

    The characters of  Ruby Vaughn (strong and flawed heroine), Ruan Kivell (the local "Pellar," in English folk he practiced Magic and Witchcraft, was a healer, diviner and breaker of spells) a compelling and mysterious man, and Tamysn (the recent widow who appears haunted and terrified) each provide layers and nuances to the story.  Although Ruby and Ruan initially butt heads, there is something between Ruby and Ruan, something ancient and mystical that I dearly hope will be further explained in subsequent books.  Mr. Owen and Mrs. Penrose are great secondary characters that I'm glad will be returning.

    The setting of Cornwall with the deep sense of history and persistant old folk ways sets the gothic atmosphere to perfection.  The plot has many twists and turns that kept me guessing.  The mystery may seem simple at first but it is actually more complex and involved.  The lurking image of a ghost, the Pellar's near magic healing abilities, and the family secrets slowly doled out are perfection and kept me reading on and on.  The climax was great with some suspense.  The wrapup ties up all the loose ends, except whether Ruby and Ruan will see each other again and figure out their strange connection.  Something to look forward to, I hope.  

     I admit the first chapter or two didn't grab me, but I'm glad I stuck with it because once Sir Edward Chenowyth is murdered the story had me in its spell and I could barely put it down to sleep.  I highly recommend.   

Rating:  Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now and put this author on your watch list 

Mystery Movie Review-A Haunting in Venice vs Hallowe'en Party

A Haunting in Venice (2023) is very loosely inspired by the 1969 book Halloween Party by Agatha Christie, her 31st novel to feature Hercule Poirot.  The only other adaptation/filming of the book was for the Hercules Poirot series in 2007-released 2010 (Season 12 episode 2).

What's It About:

In 1947, post-World War II Venice, Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, while employing ex–police officer Vitale Portfoglio to act as a bodyguard. On Halloween, mystery writer Ariadne Oliver convinces Poirot to attend a Halloween party and séance at the palazzo of famed opera singer Rowena Drake and to expose Joyce Reynolds, a World War I army nurse turned medium, as a fraud. The palazzo itself is claimed to be haunted by the spirits of children who, when the palazzo was an orphanage, were locked up and left to die when a plague swept through the city, with rumors that the spirits torment any nurses and doctors who dare to enter.

Rowena has hired Joyce to help her commune with her daughter Alicia, who reportedly died by suicide after her fiancé, chef Maxime Gerard, broke off their engagement. Among the guests in attendance are Maxime, Rowena's housekeeper Olga Seminoff, Drake family doctor Leslie Ferrier and his son Leopold, and Joyce's Romani assistant Desdemona Holland.

Director:  Kenneth Branagh

Writers: Michael Green and "Agatha Christie"

Stars:

Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot

Michelle Yeoh as Joyce Reynolds

Jamie Dornan as  Dr. Leslie Ferrier

Kelly Reilly (Pride & Prejudice) as  Rowena Drake

Jude Hill as Leopold Ferrier

Tina Fey as  Ariadne Oliver

Dylan Corbett-Bader as  Baker

Amir El-Masry as Alessandro Longo

Riccardo Scamarcio as Vitale Portfoglio

Fernando Piloni as Vincenzo Di Stefano

Reviews:  Rotten Tomatoes: 76% 

The film received generally positive reviews from critics.

"The film resonates with qualities found in classics of the genre by Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, and is simultaneously reminiscent in its aggressive theatrical approach to Branagh’s own neo-noir thriller “Dead Again” from 1991." Lee Zumpe of Tampa Bay Newspapers

"A Haunting in Venice is an adequate mystery, with shadows, mystique and a plot with twists and turns." Marie Asner of Phantom Tollbooth

"It's beautifully shot, perfectly set, and filled with great actors - and it's even mercifully under 2 hours. So if you want a good pre-Halloween snack with some chills and thrills but isn't too much, this is a fun one for you."  Paul Salfen of AMFM Magazine

Trivia 

The film had its red carpet premiere at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square at the West End London on September 11 with none of the cast members in attendance due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.

Clinched No. 1 on its opening weekend in the UK, Spain and Italy, but not in the USA.

Filmed on location in Venice. Branagh wanted to use as many physical sets possible for filming.

Released on September 15, 2023, Dame Agatha Christie's 133rd birthday.

Michelle Yeoh dropped out of The Electric State (2024) to star in this movie.

As of November 2023, this is the least successful Poirot movie by Kenneth Branagh on the box office world wide.

Sir Kenneth Branagh worked with the technical department to cause surprises for the cast. The actors were not warned about lights going out suddenly, or gusts of wind and slamming doors on the sets in which they worked, causing genuine confused and startled reactions from the actors to appear in the film. Kelly Reilly confirmed that filming the seance scene was a terrifying experience saying in an interview, "It scared the bejesus out of me."

Dr. Farrier mentions that medical staff accidentally killed the starving concentration camp prisoners they had liberated with milk. This is actually possible, and is caused by a condition known as "Refeeding Syndrome."

Bergen-Belsen, mentioned as the source of Dr. Farrier's trauma, was a real concentration camp during WW2, and was the camp Anne Frank died in.

Jamie Dornan and Jude Hill previously played father and son in Belfast (2021), also directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh.

My Thoughts:

Plot is nowhere near the same plot as Christie's book, things are so changed around that it is a different story all together than Agatha Christie and I don't think the changes made the mystery any better.  The characters may have had the same names but were completely changed and the motive and setups of murder and even killer were all different.  

The acting had some shining stars, in particular Michelle Yeoh as the medium and twelve-year-old Jude Hill as the boy Leopold Ferrier gave outstanding performances.  Jamie Dornan as  Dr. Leslie Ferrier and Kelly Reilly as Rowena Drake gave a good performances as well.  The music was particularly well done and added to the near horror mood.  Cinematography was dark (everything is dark, darker than the prior two) but intense and has the signature Branagh camera angles and style.

If I look at this as a mystery in the tradition of Christie only, I would consider it an entertaining and spooky movie, not necesarrily great, but enough.

Original "Halloween Party" Season 12 Episode 2 July 2007

During an English village's Hallowe'en party held in a mannor home, a young girl boasts of having witnessed a murder from years before. No one believes her tale until her body is found later on in the evening, drowned in the apple-bobbing bucket.

The popular author who was at the party contacts Poirot to rush to the village and solve the young girl's murder. He believes the girl's death is because she claimed to witness a murder several years prior and sets about to discover who was murdered years before (probably what was thought a suicide) and uncover who killed the young girl to keep the murder she claimed to witness quiet.  

David Sucket is the epitome of Christie's character and brings some humor to Poirot in this movie as well as his sensitivity to young people.  The story follows the book pretty closely.  The story is a little dark and has gothic/spooky touches but not bordering on horror atmosphere.  At no point in the story is Poirot disturbed by the deaths, mystery, or "haunted" by the spirits like the 2023 version.

Filmed at: Beckley Park, Beckley, Oxfordshire, England, UK (In particular: Topiary garden of the Drake residence) 

My Thoughts:

I really enjoy the original for its being close to the book.  It is a classic British mystery with plenty of twists upon twists in the plot.  David Suchet is the embodiment of Hercules Poirot-full stop. Although I enjoy Peter Ustinov's portrayals, David Suchet became Poirot completely and his acting is nuanced.  For this reason I always enjoy watching his portrayals of the greatest detective.  This version isn't as flashy or fast paced as Haunting, but I find it more entertaining since I enjoy British paced mysteries.  I will probably watch this version again and again, but not the 2023 Haunting.

DID YOU SEE BOTH?  What did you think of them?  Leave a comment please.