If you enjoy cozy mysteries, I suggest following the Crooked Lane Books website. They publish a wide variety of entertaining new cozies. A bit more modern than the traditional cozy, but still well within the guidelines of the genre. They are typically fast-paced and have colorful covers On Borrowed Crime by Kate Young is a prime example of what Crooked Lane publishes in the cozy mystery genre.
On Borrowed Crime is the first book in Kate Young's Jane Doe Book Club series. The series takes place in a small town located north of Atlanta, Georgia. Lyla Moody is our amateur sleuth, but maybe not so amateur as she has just begun a job working as an assistant to her Uncle who is a P.I.
What I liked about this book is that it blended a cold case and true crime into a cozy mystery. Additionally, Lyla doesn't put herself into dangerous situations and her best friend is not over the top silly or 'sassy' The book is fast-paced and if you are a fan of mysteries, you'll likely enjoy how Kate Young incorporates Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None in this mystery.
Lyla is single in this book and for those who look for romance in their cozy reading, this book is virtually romance-free. I could see romance featuring potentially in the future, but it isn't a feature in this book.
I don't know if this was on purpose or just happenstance, but this book reminded me of Charlaine Harris's book Real Murders in that both take place in small towns north of Atlanta, both involved members of a crime related book club, and in both books, characters talk about how unseemly and weird it is that the main character is interested in true crime.
Overall this was an enjoyable book, and the reason it's closer to a 3 than a 4 for me is that reading the scenes with Lyla and her parents you would think this book was taking place in 1971, not 2021. The dated attitudes towards women were just too much.
Stars 3.5, I will probably read the second book in the series to see where things go. I really felt like Lyla's parents and a few other people treated her like she was 14, not 31, if that is a continuing theme then the series isn't for me. I like women in their 30s to be treated as such.
If you are looking for an easy spicy meal for a weekday dinner, I recently made this recipe and the Hubs loved it. It's from Real Simple Magazine, Spicy Chorizo Chili
