Review of Gear, Grills & Guns

Gears, Grills & Guns

A Camper and Criminals Cozy Mystery Series

Tonya Kappes

5 Stars

Synopsis:

“Romance, a lovable bunch of eccentrics, and a collection of recipes with murder most foul.”

–Kirkus

“Scrumptious… Fans of culinary cozies will have fun.”

–Publishers Weekly

“A sweet Southern mystery with a delightful plot and quirky characters who quickly make you feel at home.”

–San Francisco Book Review

Welcome to Normal, Kentucky~ where nothing is normal.

Mae West is bound to prove she deserves the seat she was appointed to on the National Park Committee when she brings a big car show to Normal during the slower fall month. But, when Wendell Holliday’s body is found dead in one of Happy Trails Campground bungalows and one of the rentable campers is burning to the ground, Mae along with the help of the Laundry Club Ladies once again put on their sleuthing caps to figure out who is trying to sabotage Mae and her new position on the committee.  (Amazon)

Review:

The characters are well defined and well rounded.   Hank and Mae are still squabbling about Mae getting involved in his investigation, but he does like to hear her take on things.  The Laundry Club Ladies are  happy to get involved, and when they are on the case, there is no stopping them.  And when they get involved, mayhem follows.

The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and these descriptions pulled me into the story from the very beginning.  I could visualize the activities at the campsites and the gossip at the laundromat.  The mystery was well plotted and held my interest throughout the whole book.  It was not easily solved and I was not certain until the reveal at the end.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy.  The stories just keep getting better.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book and provided my honest review.

New Releases For The Week Of October 18th, 2020–Part 3

All Madis Harrah wants is to finish her first season of landscaping without any more drama. No more persnickety customers, no more hassle of organizing invoices, and no more equipment hiccups. It’s almost fall, so it should be easy to wrap up her debut year of business without a headache, right?

Wrong. As a finale, she begins work on a large estate just outside the small town of Payton. The owner is a former classmate, and while it’s great reuniting with a familiar face, it’s not so nice to discover the property vandalized. This isn’t a one-time incident, either, and when Madis’s project is destroyed, it seems the end of the season will only be soiled with mischief.

Can she help identify the vandal before she loses the job? (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

It’s Christmastime in Tempest, and Mortimer House is decorated like something out of a fairy tale. With rooms at the boarding establishment filling up, the Tempest Ladies’ Quilt Society beginning to hold meetings in the house library, and a brutal snowstorm ripping up the Atlantic coast, Fiona will soon have her hands full.

But when a frozen body is discovered in a parked car, Fiona once again finds herself in the middle of an investigation. Worse yet, the bodies start piling up as quickly as the snow, and Fiona must get to the bottom of the crisis that threatens to upend life in the sleepy seaside town.

Will Fiona learn the truth behind the mysterious deaths plaguing Tempest? Or will her own life be swept away in a blizzard of chaos? (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

When the smoke clears, a man lies dead and a young woman looks to blame.

The fire in the Ashmolean’s archives reveals itself to be a cover-up for the real crime: dozens of valuables are missing from the shelves. Unfortunately, security guard Andrei Radu dies at the scene, elevating the crime to a homicide.

DCI Robinson, Oxford’s leading detective, is determined to see the guilty prosecuted. The security feed puts Kate’s young assistant Francie at the scene. She claims to be innocent but DCI Robinson isn’t convinced.

Nat and her friends know the likely perpetrator is the person behind the problems with the magic. Can they save Francie from going down for a crime she didn’t commit? (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback

Drinking Decaf Could Be Murder

Full description coming soon.

This is the fifth book in The Connie Cafe Mystery Series, a perfect series for lovers of clean small town mysteries that feature coffee and an amateur sleuth who’s in way over her head. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

An awkward superhero, a fortune-teller in training, and an herbal witch face off against a powerful foe.

After the arrival of a dark force is predicted in a vision, Jackie Lawson discovers the body of a woman with puncture wounds on her neck. Suspecting a mad scientist is trying to hide an experiment gone wrong, Jackie and her friends follow the clues to a frightening discovery. The three amateur sleuths will need help from their paranormal community to save the residents of Atom City. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

It’s been a rough year for 26-year-old Mags Murray. First she learns that her dad isn’t her biological father, a secret her mother took to her grave three years earlier. Then her beloved Irish grandmother passes away at Christmas while Mags is visiting her from the States. Now Mags must host her grandmother’s wake and sell her cottage. A cottage filled with cherished memories. A cottage Mags inherited but her odd jobs won’t enable her to keep.

Shortly after the funeral, a young man, Finn O’Brien, arrives at the cottage with an old photograph. Finn believes the boys in the photo are a clue to his father’s identity. Mags can sympathize with him, and because she often helped her genealogist grandmother uncover skeletons in people’s closets, including herself, she agrees to assist Finn.

But searching for Finn’s father stirs up trouble. Finn is in a near-fatal car crash that wasn’t an accident. So Mags and her childhood friend Biddy McCarthy investigate why someone wants to prevent Finn from finding his father. Questioning the quirky locals proves a wee bit difficult as several of the suspects were victims of Mags and Biddy’s childhood shenanigans.

It might take a fake Irish wake to reveal Finn’s father and the would-be murderer.

But what if the two turn out to be the same person? (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

What do you tell a witch that you’ve fallen in love with?

You’ve got me under your spell.

It’s New Year’s Eve in Sweetwater Falls and Zoe Cross is super duper in love with Detective Sean Peabody. They share an amazing New Year’s Eve at the party of the year, sharing a kiss at midnight that leaves her breathless.

But not everyone is happy.

When Zoe witnesses a happy couple arguing heatedly on what should be a happy occasion, she’s suspicious. When she hears an earsplitting scream later on, she’s found herself right in the middle of another murder.

Now finds herself neck deep in an investigation not just into the murder that broke apart this outwardly happy couple, but the supernatural events that brought them about. Something is afoot, and she’s pretty sure its sinister. But she’s not worried. She’s sure with her friends she’ll solve this case just like she did the others.

Let’s just hope it’s not a case of “witchful thinking”… (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

There’s a mysterious murder hiding in the darkness… and it knows your weakness.

Recently returned home, Detective Claire finds herself in the craziest situation, she thinks she can escape the craziness of a quiet island, but she now finds herself up against the monster.

She is close to you. She’s spent years honing her craft.

This is no ordinary killer; she seems to stalk her prey. More importantly Claire can’t shake this feeling, that this killer is around her, and knows the victims well.

Will Claire be able to stop the killer in time before he strikes? 

Can she find out who killed her brother?
Can save the island’s people?

If you like suspense mystery books, then you will love The Scent of Bones.

Click the Buy NOW or Read NOW button at the top and join her search today. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

Happy New Year . . . or is it?

Cassandra Haywood hopes her aunt, Lady Lemington, the CEO of Lemington Cheese Company, will behave tonight. With the help of a large household staff, they are hosting an elegant holiday gala for friends, local merchants, and rival cheese company owners. Scarves and secrets swirl around Cassandra as the clock counts down.

When an unexpected ice storm traps guests and staff within the modern English estate, someone dies in the great halls of the house that cheese built. After Cassandra realizes she has become the head detective’s number one suspect, she must overcome self-doubt to discover the truth and clear her name.

The first book in the Lemington Cheese Company Mystery series serves up intrigue, red-herrings, and humor, alongside several kinds of cheese. This culinary, cozy mystery introduces readers to Cassandra Haywood. She loves scarves, has a knack for business, and unexpectedly adds “amateur sleuth” to her resume following a possible crime at the manor.

Written in American English sprinkled with British expressions. Bonus recipe included. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

L

Liz ran as fast as she could to get to Ary’s house. She was covered in blood; her ex-husbands blood.

Arizona Summers, also known as Ary, and Chief of Police Keith Wesley are out to find a killer. Arizona’s dog Nutmeg is invaluable to the mystery and finds things others can’t see.

Meanwhile, Ary is busy with Moonstone Cafe and Sunday Brunch. Ary’s mom Emma has outdone herself this time ending up in jail, and Aunt Sandy meets a love interest.

Come join the adventure. Get your copy today. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

Kristiana Lundrigan is making her dreams come true. She’s buying a Montana quilt shop, one overstocked with gorgeous quilting cottons. As soon as the papers are signed, Kristi is ready to begin the remodel that will make the shop her own. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she discovers a body at the shop’s back door. Now Kristi has to uncover the truth before she’s stitched into the fabric of the crime! (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

Perfect for fans of Molly Fitz and Christy Barritt… 

An unlucky amateur sleuth, an adorable cop, and a cat with a hunch…

If anyone had told Mallory Beck she would become Honeysuckle Grove’s next unschooled detective, she would have thought they were ten noodles short of a lasagna. Her late husband had been the mystery novelist with a penchant for the suspicious. She was born for the Crock-Pot, not the magnifying glass, and yet here she is elbow deep in fettuccine, cat treats, and teenagers with an attitude, the combination of which lands her smack-dab in the middle of a murder investigation.

Maybe she should have thought twice about delivering a casserole to a grieving family. Maybe she should have avoided the ever-changing green eyes of her seventh-grade crush—now the most heart-stopping cop in town. Maybe she should have stopped listening to the insightful mewls of her antagonistic cat, Hunch, who most likely wants her to be the town’s next murder victim.

Whatever the case, Mallory Beck got herself into this investigation, and she has a distraught teenage girl counting on her to deliver the truth. 

Start reading this new cozy culinary series today!

★★★★★ Praise for Denise Jaden’s writing: ★★★★★ 

“A riveting and emotional story.” ~ The Compulsive Reader
“…A remarkable first novel.” ~ CM Magazine
“Pitch-perfect portrayals of high school social life.” ~ School Library Journal
“A poignant important book.” ~ C.K. Kelly Martin, author of Yesterday
“A stellar debut…A tour-de-force of emotion and surprising humor.” ~ Wicked Awesome Books 
“Highly recommended.” ~ Library Media Connection
“Honest, gut-wrenching, and oh so beautiful.” ~ Eileen Cook, author of You Owe Me a Murder
“Harrowing and inspiring.” ~ Publishers Weekly
“Raw and unforgettable.” ~ Tara Kelly, author of Amplified (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback

Northrop has gone to the ghosts.

I’m Elise Marybell Marple, owner of the magic shop Wicked Ways. When Lucy Littman, resident Realtor of Northrop shows up at the shop begging me to exorcise the spirits at an upscale property she’s trying to sell, how could I say no? After all, real hauntings are rare, even for a supernatural town like Northrop. The minute Shelly and I get involved – Wicked Ways inherits a spectral visitor of its own. Now, the Wicked Ways crew and I must get to the bottom of the hauntings before our big Halloween event, or risk losing Wicked Ways to the ghosts. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

More of Harper River’s secrets are unburied in this next gripping installment!

Dee Avery’s life changed forever after the murder of one of her clients. Shaken to the core, she tries her best to put the past behind her and move on.

But no matter how hard she tries, some secrets refuse to stay buried. Especially when one of them shows up on the doorstep of her salon begging for help.

Dee shelters the girl but quickly realizes her story doesn’t add up. She’s scared and running from something, but Dee can’t pry it out of her before the stranger’s secrets come home to roost.

When a body is found in the back of Dee’s shop, the authorities make her the focus of their investigation, refusing to believe Dee is the innocent party.

Once again, Dee has to ignore her need for safety and security and find out who’s responsible for the death. But this time, the murderer has a personal connection to Dee.

And it’s one she never sees coming. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

“Romance, a lovable bunch of eccentrics, and a collection of recipes with murder most foul.”
–Kirkus

“Scrumptious… Fans of culinary cozies will have fun.”
–Publishers Weekly

“A sweet Southern mystery with a delightful plot and quirky characters who quickly make you feel at home.”
–San Francisco Book Review

Welcome to Normal, Kentucky~ where nothing is normal.

Mae West is bound to prove she deserves the seat she was appointed to on the National Park Committee when she brings a big car show to Normal during the slower fall month. But, when Wendell Holliday’s body is found dead in one of Happy Trails Campground bungalows and one of the rentable campers is burning to the ground, Mae along with the help of the Laundry Club Ladies once again put on their sleuthing caps to figure out who is trying to sabotage Mae and her new position on the committee. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle