Sunday's Book - Murder and Mint Tea #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Mystery #Cozy #Hudson Valley

 

This is BWL's free Book for the month of March

Katherine is a retired nurse and a retired church organist. The small Hudson River village where she lives in her Victorian “Painted Lady” makes her the neighborhood matriarch. Along with her Maine Coon Cat Robespierre, she guards friends and families.

When amoral Rachel moves into the first floor apartment of Katherine’s house, trouble erupts. The murder weapon is one she recognizes and makes her fear for her friends and family. Finding the killer becomes her goal.

Editorial Review
Murder and Mint Tea is a gem in its genre, combining the voice of a classic American whodunit with that of a traditional British detective novel. Murder She Wrote meets Miss Marple in a beautifully crafted tale that makes the reader want to reach into the pages and dispense justice to the villainess themselves. ~ Writer Gail Roughton

Juliet Waldron

5.0 out of 5 stars Landlady's perils

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

Yes, the book unfolds slowly, exactly as you can imagine such events happening. A glamorous young divorced woman and her children, boy and girl, move into a friendly, safe, pleasant neighborhood and rent the downstairs of a lovely old house. Pretty quickly, the landlady, a retired nurse with deep roots in her community, learns that her renters, foisted off on her by a trusted friend of her son, are trouble. Not the daughter, who both brother and mother treat as a live-in slave, but the boy, who is malicious and aggressive. Bit by bit, Mrs. Miller realizes that she has not one but two sociopaths living downstairs, because the mother proves to be a toxic personality. Plenty of creepy crawlies as you read, and piece by piece the true crime aspects of this "it could happen here" story unfolds. What I liked best about the book were the well-observed and true to life characters as well as the unsettling description of the unraveling of what has been a nearly idyllic neighborhood. I also loved the fact that Mrs. Miller is a mature woman and that her wisdom and her insights do have impact upon setting the world to rights again.

Diane Scott Lewis

4.0 out of 5 stars A Slice of Life with a Cup of Mint Tea

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

Mrs. Katherine Miller spends her days enjoying her friends and family and she's anxious for a new tenant in her downstairs apartment. Her son, Andrew, has found a woman with two children who will sign a year's lease.
The woman, Rachel, turns out to be loud, obnoxious, neglectful of her children, and seductive to any man in her vicinity.
Katherine worries about the woman's abused daughter and takes Susie under her wing.
This is more a slice of life story than a mystery. The murder happens nearly at the end of the novel, and the perpetrator surprised me.
I enjoyed the different characters in the neighborhood and Katherine is kind and good-hearted. She should have been more assertive with nasty Rachel. The woman threatened her several times, and Katherine should have reported her to the authorities for that and the obvious child abuse, which might have gotten Rachel evicted.
Of course, that would have ruined the ending. A good read for a rainy day.

 

My Places

https://twitter.com/JanetL717

 https://www.facebook.com/janet.l.walters.3?v=wall&story_f

bid=113639528680724

 http://bookswelove.net/

 http://wwweclecticwriter.blogspot.com

https://www.pinterest.com/shadyl717/

 

Buy Mark

https://bookswelove.net/walters-janet-lane/