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Murder at the Palace
Murder at the Palace
Margaret Dumas | 2019 | Mystery
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
First Days are Murder
When Nora Paige’s movie star husband is caught having an affair with a co-star, she decides it is time to start over. Fortunately, Nora’s friend Robbie needs someone to manage the Palace Theater up in San Francisco. However, Nora’s first day doesn’t go as planned. She’s barely met the staff when she finds a dead body in the backup ice maker in the basement. Naturally, she doesn’t recognize the victim, but none of the staff know who he is either. Could his murder be tied to the death of the previous manager? And, if that shock weren’t enough, Nora starts to see a hallucination that just might be the ghost of an usherette named Trixie from the 1930’s. Is Nora going crazy? Can she figure out what is going on?

Since I rarely do paranormal cozies, I almost skipped this book, but I was so drawn to the classic movies theme that I had to give it a try. I’m very glad I did because it was fun. While we find the body early on, the set up, including introducing Trixie to the mix, does slow thing down at the beginning, but there is a strong mystery for Nora to solve. Nora, Trixie, and the rest of the cast are a hoot, and I can’t wait to hang out with all of them again. And there is plenty of talk about old movies. While I haven’t seen many of the movies mentioned yet, the discussion certainly made me want to fix that. I’m already buying my ticket for the next entry in this series.
  
The Yellow Lantern
The Yellow Lantern
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
osephine Is Forced to Spy for Grave Robbers

Step into True Colors—a new series of Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime



In Massachusetts in 1824, Josephine Clayton awakes on the table of the doctor she’s assisted all these months. She was presumed dead by all and has become the doctor’s next corpse for his medical research. Frightened, the doctor tries to kill her, but Josephine begs to be spared. A deal is struck—Josie will leave her village and work at a distant cotton mill. All the while, she’ll await her true mission—posing as a mourner to help his body snatcher procure her replacement. At the mill though, Josie is praised for her medical remedies among the mill girls, gaining attention from the handsome factory manager Braham Taylor. Yet, when Braham’s own loved one becomes the prey for the next grave robbing, Josie must make a choice that could put her dark past behind her or steal away the promise of any future at all. What price will Josie pay for love when her secrets begin to unravel





My Thoughts: This is a very unique mystery that will captivate readers from the beginning. A fictional novel based on true facts, this story gives the reader an insight to the horrific things that happened at the turn of the century.



This story will certainly keep the readers' attention. The author has created very believable characters. The readers will either like them or hate them.


This is a wonderful story for those who like a good mystery. This one has many twists in the plot to keep the readers on their toes.
  
My wife was the assistant manager of the little community shop in All Cannings (a small village in Wiltshire) and the author was a regular customer. When he couldn't get any interest in his story set around the village from a publisher he decided to publish it himself - and so we are the proud owners of a copy of this work. It doesn't feature any cover art - the book is simply white with the title writtien in black writing, something that is more effective and chilling than any picture could be.

Written for young adults, this tells the story of a group of friends who investigate the appearance of an 'angel' - a white mark on the hillside near their home, which intriguingly they are warned away from by some officials. The area is famous for its crop circles and soon it becomes clear there is a link between crop circles and secret military testing. Despite the danger the children pursue the truth.

The plot works well with the children (and the reader) wanting to find out more as each part of the conspiracy is uncovered and it is immensely readable. The children are likeable and the adults they encounter are by turns helpful and friendly or threatening and scary.

There are faults - the children sometimes act older than their ages and there is an event late in the book which is morally questionable. But overall this is a very sound and credible novel. It is such a shame that it was written a few years before eBooks took off, when it might have seen a much wider audience.