It’s Monday! What are you reading? I usually don’t get Monday morning blues. Or yellows, or greens… 😉 What about you?
I had a tiring week – my laptop crashed, blah blah, long story short – RIP laptop. So, I did not get to read as much as I wanted to.
I read three cozy mysteries last week – Gavels, Tinsel and Murder by Victoria Tait, A False Charity by Veronica Heley and Murder Outside the Lines by Krista Davis. I finished reading Stone Cold Killing by D.E. White last night.
What am I reading this week?
Chaos at Carnegie Hall by Kelly Oliver
Can Fiona catch a killer and find a decent cup of tea before her mustache wax melts?
1917 New York.
Notorious spy, Fredrick Fredricks, has invited Fiona to Carnegie Hall to hear a famous soprano. It’s an opportunity the War Office can’t turn down. Fiona and Clifford are soon on their way, but not before Fiona is saddled with chaperon duties for Captain Hall’s niece. Is Fiona a spy or a glorified babysitter?
From the minute Fiona meets the soprano aboard the RMS Adriatic it’s treble on the high C’s. Fiona sees something—or someone—thrown overboard, and then she overhears a chemist plotting in German with one of her own countrymen!
And the trouble doesn’t stop when they disembark. Soon Fiona is doing time with a group of suffragettes and investigating America’s most impressive inventor Thomas Edison.
When her number one suspect turns up dead at the opera and Fredrick Fredricks is caught red-handed, it looks like it’s finally curtains for the notorious spy.
But all the evidence points to his innocence. Will Fiona change her tune and clear her nemesis’ name? Or will she do her duty? And just what is she going to do with the pesky Kitty Lane? Not to mention swoon-worthy Archie Somersby . . .
If Fiona’s going to come out on top, she’s going to have to make the most difficult decision of her life: the choice between her head and her heart.
Hidden Pieces by Mary Keliikoa
Sheriff Jax Turner is staring down the barrel of his broken past. On the brink of ending it all, he feels like a failure following his daughter’s tragic passing and his subsequent divorce. But when a schoolgirl vanishes and her backpack is found in a sex offender’s backseat, the weary lawman drags himself into action and vows to nail one last sociopath.
Shocked to discover the teen’s aunt had lost her life in an abduction years prior, the devastating outcome that he’s taken personally, Jax believes the killer has returned with a vengeance. But as the desperate cop frantically hunts down a mysterious relative in search of a suspect, the girl’s time keeps ticking away…
Can the jaded sheriff take down the culprit in time to bring the young girl home alive?
Dead Men Don’t Decorate by Cordy Abbott
Roberto Fratelli, proprietor of the antiques store Waited4You, is the meanest man in Marthasville, Virginia. So when he puts the business up for sale, the other merchants in town are overjoyed. And now the business has a prospective buyer: local resident and the newly elected mayor’s mom, Camille Benson, who’s thrilled at the prospect of getting into the antiques business. During a celebration in honor of Camille’s new venture, her best friend, Opal, tells her about finding a letter, purportedly from Sally Fairfax to George Washington, dated 1756, hidden under a chair in the shop. When they return to retrieve the cache, they find Roberto’s lifeless body on the floor and no letter.
Police question Ella Coleman, Roberto’s ex-wife, and discover that her current husband supplied Roberto with oh-so-faux Victorian furniture. Did the two cheat the wrong customer? Or could the murder be connected to an earlier theft of rare books from the shop—a theft Roberto never reported?
As Camille prepares to confront these questions and investigate the murder, she knows she might become the latest knock-off.
If They Knew by Sophie Flynn
What would you hide to get everything you ever wanted?
After years of infertility and heartbreak, Hannah and Charlie are finally going to get their dream family. Two-year-old Isabelle is a week away from being theirs; they just have to get through the final adoption approval process.
But when a global popstar is found murdered at the celebrity members’ club in their sleepy Oxfordshire village, Hannah fears her past is finally catching up with her. Exposing the truth could see her lose everything… her husband, Isabelle – perhaps even her life.
But Hannah doesn’t realise that Charlie has his own secrets, and, in trying to save her, has put them more at risk than she ever thought possible. As the couple get drawn in further to the murky world of celebrity and murder, they soon find themselves caught in a nightmare, forced to make terrible choices.
How many bad things will a good person do to hold onto what they love?
A Secret Escape to Sunshine Island by Georgina Troy
Popstar Matteo Stanford is eager to escape to the sunshine island to catch up with his old friend Alex and secretly film his latest music video. But within moments of landing, the location for the shoot is leaked to the press, and his island escape and video might be over before they start.
Not to be defeated, Alex’s girlfriend Piper recruits her two best friends Casey and Tara, who run the Smoke and Mirrors stall at the The Cabbage Patch market. It doesn’t take Casey more than a moment to realise the perfect setting for Matteo’s video is Gorey castle, but securing the venue means Casey is soon planning a secret wedding, finding an actress and becoming a set designer!
It’s chaos and crazed fans, peppered with the sweetest moments she’s ever experienced. But could a popstar really fall for island girl Casey Norman?
The Book Decoder 
Enjoy your reads Rekha.❤📚
You too, Sandy 😊❤
I have Chaos at Carnegie Hall waiting too, though I don’t think I’ll get to it this week. Hope you enjoy your reads this week!
I started reading it. 20% through and so far, I am liking it. 😊
What are you planning to read this week?
After my current read (roll over from 1929) I think I’ll start some of my nonfiction november reads, and How We Disappear by Tara Lynn Masih (short stories)
Nice looking group of books. I hope you enjoy them all. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
Thank you,Kathy 😊❤
Oh no! Sorry about the laptop! Love the look of your books though- especially the first two. The first book has such a cute cover, and the second one sounds chilling! Love the summer beach feel of that last one too. 🙂
Thank you, Greg.😊
The first book is a historical fiction – I just finished reading it. Okay for a one-time read.
It sounds like you had a wonderful reading week. Hope next week is as good.