#CozyMysteryBookClub #FebruaryReview Crime & Punctuation!

It is almost time for the February meeting of The Cozy Mystery Book Club! This coming Tuesday, Feb 23rd on YouTube at 7pm EST,  you can join in the live stream discussion of this month's book Crime & Punctuation by Kaithlyn Dunnett.  As you can see in my picture from an Instagram post I made, I borrowed the book from my local library. The cover of the book is a bit of an optical illusion,  looking like four-book spines. This is the first book in the Deadly Edits Series and after this book, there are two additional books so far--and the covers that look like book spines continue on book two and book three's covers. 

Mikki Lincoln, the protagonist of this series, is a retired school teacher. Additionally, she is a recent widow who has moved back to her hometown.  Mikki edits books on the side to help pay for renovations to her hundred-year-old home. If it weren't for The Cozy Mystery Book Club, I don't think I would have picked up this book.  I have so many cozy mysteries yet to read on my kindle and on my bookshelf.  Of course, that is one of the reasons I like to participate in the club, I wind up reading stories I would not have read otherwise. 

As I began reading Crime & Punctuation,  I realized I don't think I have read any book told from the POV of a woman who was in her late 60s. I've read plenty of books in my life and many of them are from a woman's POV but the vast majority of those books take place with characters who are under 40.   It would seem that the cozy mystery is a subgenre that allows for women who are older to be protagonists! I hope as more cozy mysteries are published, that the subgenre continues to broaden the types of people that get to be protagonists. I want more cozies told from the POV of Black and Brown women of all ages and also from members of the LBGTQIA community.  As a reader, I value stories written by and about people living completely different lives than me. 

Alright, back to the book. Mikki uses her skills as a former teacher and an editor to discover who killed Tiffany and why.  I enjoyed how Kaitlyn Dunnett uses a book manuscript as the central clue in this plot. In the book, Mikki talks about how new writers make mistakes in their writing and as I was reading  Mikki's critiques, I thought Kaitlyn Dunnett must have to be very careful in her writing so the character she created wouldn't tell her to fix her writing! The book takes place in the fall in a small town in the Catskills. Once again, which is very 2021 of me, I add the Catskills to my long list of places I would like to visit after the pandemic.

4.5 Stars to Crime & Punctuation a solid start for a mystery series: small town, curious sleuth, cat companion, a bookish job, and a big old house in a scenic area --and a cornucopia of townspeople! 

*****

My weather app says that Chicagoland should be getting temps in the 30s this weekend. I hope so, I want some of this snow to melt! 

This is how much snow we had on January 30th! 

This is how much snow we have now.

I think that's enough snow, I'm good with temps too high for snow moving forward!  

 

Posting Cause It's My Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Mark your calendar, when we have a handle on COVID-19, I'm going to have a big party.  There will be charcuterie trays and chilled wine and hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill and craft beers.  There will be a great playlist of groovy hits from the 70s and 2020's modern psychedelic music.  There will be cake! There will be flowers! There will be party favors from me to you!

In the meantime, I finished a book I was reading, if anyone else reads it, let me know what you think!

To Kill a Mocking Girl by Harper Kincaid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fast-moving cozy mystery. I won this book by participating in the Cozy Mystery Book Club monthly live stream. If you have not checked out the Cozy Mystery Book Club you can find it on youtube, twitter, Instagram. A monthly live stream devoted to the first book in a cozy mystery series. This review was not a condition of the prize. I am reviewing the book because I like to add reviews for all the books I read.

Ms. Kincaid does a nice job of creating the lovely town of Vienna, VA, and inviting us in to visit. Quinn the MC has lived abroad as a teacher for the past few years but now she has returned home and earns a living as a bookbinder. Basically, she restores all types of old books from first edition collector's items to beloved HS yearbooks. Harper Kincaid does a nice job using Quinn's job to further the plot. If you enjoy a cozy with a pet as a fairly central character you will enjoy this book. There is a nice bit of food talk, bookbinder talk, and fungi hunting- so some interesting people and hobbies in this book--all the little things that make cozies cozy.

While I was reading, I was not sure what to make of Quinn because at times she is smart and sensible and other times seems obtuse.
To me, she seemed immature and that didn't match up with her background as someone who has lived and worked in other countries. I wondered if this was because she is back home and sometimes when we go back home as adults we find ourselves regressing back to how we dealt with life when we were teens/kids, and the people around us see us as the young person we are not any longer. It seemed pretty clear that her brother, for example, still sees her as a kid and she thinks Aiden sees her as a kid. If this is the case, that she has regressed in her growth and independence, I would love to see her address that in the next book and to have the next book give us more info on her life abroad.

Now I am not sure if Harper Kincaid wants me to like or dislike Aiden- I did finish the book hoping that Quinn will date Aiden, work through the fulfillment of a childhood dream and then move on to someone else! Yes, that's right I don't like Aiden. Yes, he is into Quinn but he is way too paternalistic and I don't like it. :-) I esp. did not like the installation of cameras in or around Quinn's house. What the heck. (I know the brother was involved too--I don't like it!) Thank you for getting me riled up Ms. Kincaid. (smiley face emoji) If there is a #TeamNOT Q&A sign me up. Maybe there can be a new guy who comes to town to teach at the local college and he is a super cute biologist who enjoys mushroom hunting and hangs out with Quinn's dad and Quinn and Science guy can meet-cute over a dead body?

Oh, one last thing, I really liked the rehabilitation of one character at the end, I hope that character is featured as the series continues.


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