The Suspect by Michael Robotham

About the author:  Before becoming a full-time crime writer, Michael Robotham was an investigative journalist in Britain, America and Australia.  He is the pseudonymous author of ten bestselling non-fiction titles, involving prominent figures in the military, the arts, sport and science.  Since then, he has written six psychological thrillers.  The Suspect is his first novel.  He currently lives on Sydney's northern beaches with his wife and three daughters.

First line in the book:  From the pitched slate roof of the Royal Marsden Hospital, if you look between the chimney pots and TV aerials, you see more chimney pots and TV aerials.

Product Description:  Joseph O'Loughlin appears to have the perfect life - a beautiful wife, a long daughter and a successful career as a clinical psychologist.  But even the most flawless existence is only a loose thread away from unravelling.  All it takes is a murdered girl, a troubled young patient and the biggest lie of his life.
When a young woman is found dead by a London canal with multiple stab wounds - all of them self-inflicted - the police ask Joe for help.  Are they dealing with a murder of a suicide?  Who is the victim?  Reluctantly, he agrees to help and the brutalised body he views at the mortuary turns out to be someone he knows: Catherine Mary McBride, a nurse and former colleague...
At the same time, Joe is grappling with a troubled young patient, Bobby Moran, who suffers terrible headaches and violent dreams that are becoming more real.  As Bobby's behaviour grows increasingly erratic, Joe ponders what he's done in the past and what he might do next.  The truth is more sinister and frightening than he could ever imagine...
Caught in a complex web of deceit and obsessed by images of the slain girl, Joe embarks upon a search that will take him from London to Liverpool and into the darkest recesses of the human mind.  Ultimately, he will risk everything to unmask the killer and save his family.

My take:  I am impressed with this book.  It does not give me the sense of trying too hard.  In fact, it can be quite thought-provoking.  What strikes me first is that it has a complex and complicated plot with more than the usual twists and turns and suspense.  It is cleverly written and very absorbing from the word go.  It is also written in an easy-to-read style and paced according to the dynamics of the story.  The characters are believable, unpredictable and multi-dimensional.  There is no shortage of humour and Robotham's wry observations of people and situations make an excellent read.  I am particularly drawn to the family relationships angle of the story which is told very convincingly and realistically and in particular, the degenerative disease that the protagonist has to come to terms with, in relation to doing his job and raising a young family.  It has been said that this book is a mixture of a psychological thriller and a love story and deals with themes of social isolation and alienation. For a debut, I would say this is a fairly successful one!  Robotham has a strong writing style and in this regard and all that I have said, he has a permanent place on my bookshelf and worth coming back to soon.

"Pleasantly creepy...Plotted with precision and narrated with real intelligence." - The New York Times Book Review.

I read this book as an audiobook narrated by Crispin Redman whose rich baritone voice is perfect for capturing the mood and pace of the story.  I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to him.

To find out more about the author and his other books, check out Michael Robotham or you can keep up to date with him on Facebook.

Rating:  4.5/5

Blueberry Muffin Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery with Recipes!) by Joanne Fluke

Opening line in the book:  Hannah Swenson awoke to a curious sensation. 

Taken from the blurb:  Preparations are underway for Lake Eden, Minnesota's annual Winter Carnival - and Hannah Swenson is set to bake up a storm at her popular shop, The Cookie Jar.  Too bad the honor of creating the official Winter Carnival cake went to famous lifestyle maven Connie Mac - a half-baked idea, in Hannah's opinion.  She suspects Connie Mac is a lot like the confections she whips up on her cable TV cooking show - sweet, light, and scrumptious-looking, but likely to leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
Hannah's suspicions are confirmed when Connie Mac's limo rolls into town.  Turns out America's "Cooking Sweetheart" is bossy, bad-tempered, and downright domineering.  Things finally boil over when Hannah arrives at The Cookie Jar to find the Winter Carnival cake burnt to a crips - and Connie Mac lying dead in her pantry, struck down while eating one of Hannah's famous blueberry muffins.
Next thing Hannah knows, the police have declared The Cookie Jar's kitchen crime scene off-limit.  She's a baker without an oven- and the Carnival is right around the corner.  Hannah's only alternative is to cook up a plan to save her business - by finding the killer herself...

One of your oldest friends has been accused of murder, your cookie shop is inaccessible because it is a crime scene, your mother's mad at you for finding another body, your fifth to be precise, and to top it off, there is a ghost on the suspect list?  This third book has been a fun read set in my favourite rural lake town.

Rating: 3/5

Beat by Stephen Jay Schwartz

(Photo taken by chooseandbook in Toronto at the harbourfront overlooking Toronto Islands, 17.10.2010)


Prologue:  A man's very highest moment is, I have no doubt at all, when he kneels in the dust, and beats his breast, and tells all the sins of his life - Oscar Wilde

Opening line in the book:  Rufus was whispering in his ear again.

Taken from the blurb:  LAPD robbery-homicide detective Hayden Glass has always had trouble controlling his urges.  No longer trolling the streets looking for working girls, he has a new obsession - the Internet.  Infatuated with a woman he finds on a website, Hayden Glass's sex addiction drags him to San Francisco and into a web of corruption and crime.
Glass's search for this woman leads him to a massive sex slave trade run by the Russian mafia and protected by a group of powerful and corrupt San Francisco cops.  Glass gets co-opted by the FBI to aid in their investigation...but his presence is doing much more harm than good.

They say that if you want to know what you want to know, then take it from the person who knows what you want to know.  Check out this 4-part interview on Schwartz talking about Beat to Connie Martinson, host of television show Connie Martinson Talks Books:









A well-researched and well-written book.  The author has a knack for painting words with vivid colours and imperceptible shadings and the extraordinary gift of bringing them to life.  I highly recommend this book and look forward to more of Hayden Glass or even a new series by the author.

Here is Schwartz talking about life 'Life After Beat' (1:18):



To find out where Schwartz does his writing with amazing pictures of cafes and his library, read Too Lonely To Write.

Rating: 5/5 (Another winner!)

Strawberry Shortcake Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery with Recipes) by Joanne Fluke

First line in the book:  The sound of a crash startled Hannah Swensen awake.

This book is about:  When the president of Hartland Flour chooses cozy Lake Eden, Minnesota, as the spot for their first annual Dessert Bake-Off, Hannah is thrilled to serve as the head judge.  But when a fellow judge, Coach Boyd Watson, is found stone-cold dead, face-down in Hannah's celebrated strawberry shortcake, Lake Eden's sweet ride to fame turns very sour indeed.
Between perfecting her Cheddar Cheese Apple Pie and Chocolate Crunchies, Hannah's snooping into the coach's private life and not coming up short on suspects.  And could Watson's harsh criticism during the judging have given one of the contestants a license to kill?  The stakes are rising faster than dough, and Hannah will ahve to be very careful, because somebody is cooking up a recipe for murder...with Hannah landing on the "necessary ingredients" list.

Murder in a small town is a rarity but in the cosy and rural town of Lake Eden, murder seems to show up on the doorstep of The Cookie Jar everytime I pay a visit.  However, the gruesome discoveries cannot beat the hunger-inducing recipes of cookies and cakes contained in the book plus finding out whodunit!  It makes for a relaxing and wind-down read after a brilliant day at Niagara Falls.  This is the second book in the series and one of my favourites in the cosy mystery genre.
(This book review was done on holiday in Canada).

Rating: 3/5

Judgment and Wrath (A Joe Hunter thriller) by Matt Hilton

Prologue:  The seventy-first spirit is Dantalion.  He is a great and mighty duke, who governs thirty-six legions of spirits.  He appears in the form of a man with many countenances, all men's and all women's faces.  Dantalion knows the thoughts of all men and women, and can change them at will - The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King, A Crowley

Hell is empty and all the devils are here - The Tempest 1.2, William Shakespeare

Opening line in the book:  Caitlin Moore opened the door to her living room and stepped into Hell.

Synopsis:  Joe Hunter doesn't like bullies.  He REALLY doesn't like men who abuse women.  So protecting Bradley Jorgenson from a professional hitman is not Joe's dream job.  The hired killer is Dantalion:  a man with a talent for killing and a book in which he obsessively numbers each of his victims.
And the body count is about to start rising...

Action, action and more action!  This is the second instalment in the Joe Hunter thriller series.  You will find more of Joe's vigilantism (sorry, Joe!) and an adrenalin-filled adventure with mayhem, explosions, chases, the FBI and dead bodies from the word go to the finish line.  Yes, it is non-stop action!  I like Hilton's writing style of alternating the protagonist's and antagonist's thoughts and actions in the book so that we get to see one scene from different angles.  It has been an absolutely fun and exhilarating read.  Joe Hunter could be the English version of Myron Bolitar but of course, Joe Hunter is his own person, always has and always will.  I look forward to more.

I read this book as an audiobook read by David John and published by Isis Audio Books.

Rating:  3/5 (Enjoyable)

Vanish (Rizzoli and Isles thriller) by Tess Gerritsen

Opening line in the book:  My name is Mila, and this is my journey.

Synopsis:  A blessed event becomes a nightmare for pregnant homicide detective Jane Rizzoli when she finds herself on the wrong side of a hostage crisis.  
The nameless and beautiful woman appears to be just another corpse in the morgue.  But when medical examiner Maura Isles unzips the body bag and looks down at what she's been told is an apparent suicide, she gets the fright of her life.
The corpse opens its eyes.
Now very much alive, the 'dead' woman is rushed to the hospital where her next action shocks everyone.  With cool precision, she murders a security guard and seizes hostages.  One of those hostages is a very pregnant patient: Jane Rizzoli.
Who is this mysterious hostage-taker, and what does she want?  As tense hours tick by, Maura joins forces with Jane's husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, to track down the nameless woman's identity.
But only Jane, trapped with the armed madwoman, holds the key to the mystery.  And only she can solve it - if she survives the night.

In this day and age, it is hard to know who to trust.  The dividing line between fear and paranoia, between truth and delusion is very thin.  And that is what this fifth book is about.  The core of this book is about undocumented aliens in the US or to be precise, about some fifty thousand unaccounted-for women who are being abused and exploited by clients who only care about one thing.  Some of the questions posed are "How do they get into a country?", "Who brought them in?", "Which routes did they take to penetrate country borders?"  I am going to take a quote from the book which pretty much sums up the gist of this Rizzoli and Isles thriller.

Ever since September eleventh, Americans just assume that we've tightened our borders, that we've clamped down on illegal immigrants.  That's hardly the case.  The illicit traffic moving between Mexico and the US is still as busy as a major highway.  We have miles and miles of unmonitored coastline.  A Canadian border that's scarcely patrolled.  And the worst human smugglers know all the routes, all the tricks.  Shipping in girls is easy.  And once they've brought them here, it's not hard to put them to work...These are slaves, serving against their will.  Thousands of girls brought into the US where they simply vanish...And few people know they even exist.  

Another quote taken from the book about the movie Pretty Woman which has apparently sent out the wrong message to impressionable young girls:

Do you know what the worst export our country ever sent to Russia was?...That movie, Pretty Woman.  You know, the one with Julia Roberts.  The prostitute as Cinderella.  In Russia, they love that movie.  The girls see it and think:  If I go to America, I'll meet Richard Gere.  He'll marry me, I'll be rich, and I'll live happily ever after.  So even if the girl's suspicious, even if she's not sure a legitimate job's really waiting for her in the US, she figures she'll only have to turn a few tricks, and then Richard Gere will show up to rescue her...She thinks she's coming to live the life of Pretty Woman.  Instead, she's bought and sold like a side of beef.  

Now for the good news:  I love the part where Rizzoli becomes a mother to baby Regina and how she is not coping very well with the new addition to her family and needs her mother to help out.  Her relationship with her husband, Gabriel, is admirable and loving.  Like any new mother, Rizzoli is torn between going back to her job which she loves and being there for her daughter.  Like any new mother, she eventually learns that a baby's demands are very unpredictable and nothing ever goes like clockwork.  This family angle balances the gory contents that cover most of the book very well.  Unfortunately, for Isles, she is still very much unlucky in the love department.  Even though there are situations where possible romance could develop between her and the men she met in the course of her job but somehow, they did not work out.  There is hope yet. 

By this time, I can safely say that I am pretty much used to Gerritsen's writing style and am determined to finish off this series.  I would recommend this book for its dialogue and multi-layered plot.  The Rizzoli and Isles thriller is an exceptional 'women power' series and so is the author!

The idea behind the book.  Watch this video taken from youtube:



Rating:  3/5 (Enjoyed it)

Body Double (Rizzoli and Isles thriller) by Tess Gerritsen

Opening line in the book:  That boy was watching her again.

Synopsis:  Dr Maura Isles makes her living dealing with death.  As a pathologist in downtown Boston, she has seen more than her share of corpses - many of them victims of murder.  But never before as the lifeless body on the medical examiner's table been her own. 

There can be no denying the evidence:  the dead woman before her and her close friend and colleague Detective Jane Rizzoli is the mirror image of Maura, down to the most intimate physical details.  Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type.  When a DNA test confirms that Maura's mysterious double is in fact her twin sister, an already bizzare murder investigation becomes a disturbing and dangerous excursion into a past full of dark secrets.

Searching for answers, Maura is drawn to a seaside town in Maine where other horrifying surprises await.  Even more frighteningly, an unknown murderer is at large on a cross-country killing spree.  To stop the violence, and uncover the twisted truth about her own roots, Maura must probe her first living subject:  the mother she never knew...

Movie directors have used this storyline numerous times in various movies and television shows, the storyline being the macabre act of burying someone alive in a roughly dug pit or in a dark box and that is why I think the book has a sense of familiarity to it.  However, this is Gerritsen we are talking about!  Although this book contains less action and is slower paced than usual compared to the first three books in the Rizzoli and Isles thriller series, but it has an equally complicated plot with lots of twists and turns to make a decent and suspenseful read. 

I am re-reading this book as an audiobook (read by Lorelei King:  one of Audiofile's 'Best Voices of 2008') to diversify my reading habits and to continue with the Rizolli and Isles thriller series in chronological order.

Rating:  3/5

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (The First Hannah Swensen Mystery With Recipes) by Joanne Fluke

Opening line in the book:  Hannah Swensen slipped into the old leather bomber jacket that she'd rescued from the Helping Hands thrift store and reached down to pick up the huge orange tomcat that was rubbing against her ankles. 

Synopsis:  Hannah already has her hands full trying to dodge her mother's attempts to marry her off while running The Cookie Jar, Lake Eden's most popular bakery.  But once Ron LaSalle, the beloved delivery man from the Cozy Cow Dairy, is found murdered behind her bakery with Hannah's famous Chocolate Chip Crunchies scattered around him, her life just can't get any worse.  Determined not to let her cookies get a bad reputation, she sets out to track down a killer.  But if she doesn't watch her back, Hannah's sweet life may get burned to a crisp.

Set in a small town in Minnesota called Lake Eden, this book has lots of juicy morsels to keep you hooked page by page.  This special edition also features an exciting bonus novella titled Candy for Christmas.  If you want some downtime from those crime thrillers, then this is one series which you can crunched into provided you love to mix murder with cookies! 

About the Author:  Like Hannah Swensen, Joanne Fluke was born and raised in a small town in rural Minnesota, but now lives in sunny Southern California.  Her mystery series published by Kensington Publishing Corporation is widely popular, and she is a New York Times bestselling author; so far there are fourteen books published in the series and the fifteenth book is out in February 2011.  Her series has been known for its mouthwatering recipes, its comedy, unpredictable endings and romance.  She has also written some 30 non-Swensen books and Regency Romances. 

Readers are welcome to contact her at the following e-mail address, Gr8Clues@aol.com, or by visiting her website at http://www.murdershebaked.com/ or her Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joanne-Fluke/437183540136?v=wall
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Rating:  3/5 (Cosy read)

Boulevard by Stephen Jay Schwartz

Epigraph:  The lines along which [the shattered vase] had broken...will always remain discernible to an experienced eye.  However, it will have a certain wisdom since it knows something that the vase that has never been broken does not:  it knows what it is to break and what it is to come together. - Salman Akhtar, Psychoanalyst

Opening line to the book:  Detective Hayden Glass of the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division drove his old Hollywood beat, crossing Fairfax, heading east on Sunset Boulevard.

Synopsis:  Watch this extensive video of the author being interviewed in two parts taken from youtube:





And here is another video (14:13) taken from www.spinetinglermag.com which I think is a must-watch due to it being a startling interview by a promising new voice:


Stephen Jay Schwartz interview from Damon Cap on Vimeo.

There is something when reading this book that makes me feel as if I am being transported right into the grittiness of LA, not sitting solitude in my front room looking out the window on an uneventful rainy afternoon in UK.  I cannot quite pinpoint what that something is but I can tell you that this author has a unique voice that draws you into each and every word, scene, description and character and at the same time, it repulses.  It is a powerfully evocative read.  It is original.  It is disturbing.  It is riveting.  It is shocking.  It is intimately honest.  It is intense.  It is amazing.  It is fascinating.  I can honestly say that I have not read a book of this calibre in a long time.  Heck, I could not believe this is the work of a first-time writer.

What strikes me most is Schwartz's mastery of language/prose and dialogue which are realistic, articulate, convincing and unpretentious.  He tells of a complex protagonist who works as a vice cop and who hides a tortured and ironic secret.  I cannot even begin to imagine anyone who is plagued by a shameful addiction and yet have to fight the inclination everyday on the job but here he is, LAPD Detective Hayden Glass, laid bare for all to get to know.

If you do not know much about the gist of this book aside from it being a gripping thriller, then this book will open your eyes and I mean literally.  It is because it is a book about human fallibility and human weakness but it is also a book about the human spirit and human resilience, of surviving through the deep murky waters of life and of fighting through whatever life throws at you because there is hope.  You cannot go far wrong reading a book written by an author who has experienced it and this is the kind of book that I like reading.  It is impressively written with amazing depth.

I have already placed an order for the sequel.  It may be a guy's guy book but yeah, I can dig it!

Stephen Jay Schwartz grew up in New Mexico and travelled the United States extensively before settling down in Los Angeles with his wife, two sons, a crazy dog and a rat.  There he became the director of development for film director Wolfgang Petersen, helping develop films such as Outbreak and Air Force One.  Boulevard is his debut novel and is on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller list.  His second novel, Beat, a sequel to Boulevard is already out on 28 September 2010.  To find out more about this gifted author, his website is at Stephen Jay Schwartz or you can friend him on Facebook.

Rating:  7/5

A Note From Matt Hilton, Author

http://chooseandbook.blogspot.com/2010/09/slash-and-burn-new-joe-hunter-thriller.html

I was very pleased to come across the unsolicited review of Slash and Burn above. It's a very genuine, from-the-heart-review that left me smiling with pride.

I don't know the name of the reviewer, but would like to say thanks anyway. So if you read this...thank you.

Posted by Matt Hilton at 11:37 Thursday, 16 September 2010


It pleases me no end to receive this note from Matt Hilton and for authors to read a reader's review or book thoughts.  Thank you.   

Oolong Dead (A Tea Shop Mystery) by Laura Childs

Opening line in the book:  Overhead branches slapped at Theodosia's cheeks, and a crisp breeze nipped and pecked tendrils of auburn hair from beneath her black velvet riding cap.

Synopsis:  Theodosia Browning has been asked to host a luncheon to benefit the Charleston Opera Society, which is throwing a Verdi-themed Masked Ball.  She certainly has a lot on her mind - especially after she finds the dead body of her arch nemesis, Abby Davis.  To further complicate things, the victim's brother happens to be Theodosia's old flame.  Who'd have guessed they'd be reunited through cold-blooded murder?
As the opera house is transformed into a sumptuous Venetian carnivale, Theodosia's investigation into Abby's murder takes her to the backstage maze of a darkened theater.  It's here that a maestro of murder waits for the next cue.  All proving that when it comes to high drama, Theodosia can give Verdi a run for his drama...
Includes delicious recipes and tea time tips!

This book ends my Tea Shop Mysteries fascination.  I have had such a splendid time with Theodosia, Drayton and Haley at the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston's 250-year-old historic district learning about all manners of tea, visualising Haley's tasty treats from her oven and helping them along with their sleuthings.  The next book, #11 called The Teaberry Strangler, is out on paperback in March 2011.  I will be back for it.  In the meantime, happy reading.

Rating: 3/5 (Good read)

The Sinner (Rizzoli and Isles thriller) by Tess Gerritsen

Opening line in the book:  Andhra Pradesh, India.  The driver refused to take him any farther.

Synopsis:  "I don't think I'd like your job, Dr Isles.  Why do you choose it?  Why the dead over the living?"  "Because they deserve attention.  They want us to know why they died..."  Within the walls of a cloistered convent, a scene of unspeakable carnage is discovered.  On the snow lie two nuns, one dead, one critically injured - victims of a seemingly motiveless, brutally savage attack.

As medical examiner Maura Isles' autopsy of the murder victim yields a shocking surprise, the case takes a sudden and disturbing twist.  The body of another woman has been found.  And someone has gone to a lot of trouble to remove her face, hands and feet.

As long buried secrets are revealed so Dr Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli find themselves part of an investigation that leads to an awful, dawning realization of the killer's identity...

I am pleased to be able to get back to Rizzoli and Isles, this being the third book in the series.  From the very first sentence, this book has gripped me into its horror, grimness and darkness so much so that I cannot wait to turn the next page until I get to the last page.  As is expected, Gerritsen is on top form with her prose and her depictions of both the major and minor characters.  The story starts out as a mystery confined to a small Boston convent but eventually, turns out to have international implications traced to a catastrophe in India. Unlike the first two novels, it is Dr. Isles and not Rizzoli who plays the front role in both her professional and personal life in the book.  This is a brilliant book with a top notch plot.  I highly recommend it and look forward to #4.

Rating: 5/5 (Riveting)

Dishonored by J R Reardon

Opening line in the book:  Justice Sean David McNaught, II stood on the deck of his secluded cottage retreat in Southern New Hampshire, his beloved wife, Betty, protectively cradled in his right arm, her head gently resting against his broad chest. 

This is a heads-up about the book on video/book blurb:



If you remember Confidential Communcations (read my review: 27 July 2010), this is the intriguing sequel to it.  Rebecca Tameron, the erstwhile Rebecca Lawson, is now married to David Tameron (a character from the first book) and they have two children.  Living an American dream - a loving family, a coveted career surrounded by family and good friends - she has it all until her friend, Justice McNaught went missing while on holiday.  From then on, the story starts to heat up starting with stolen identities, accidents and strange coincidences.  What do you do when you are framed for something you did not do?  Who can you trust?  How much can you trust?  Or rather the million dollar question is how can you clear your name?  According to Reardon, Dishonored questions the faith we place in both strangers and friends and reminds us how perilous our techno-savvy life can be.

I love the fact that Reardon presented a very close, warm and loving family in this legal thriller for the simple reason that this type of family is not written often enough.  How cosy and feel-good-all-over to read of this family.  I cannot help but say that the husband and wife dynamics are awesome.  In contrast, Reardon also writes of another old character, Jessica Cohen, who is not very popular among the community.  Jessica is a sensitive soul but she does not seem to attract friends and colleagues into her life, therefore she is quite lonely and isolated.  She does not  have a good relationship with her parents to say the least.  Sadly, I can relate to this character because they do exist in real life.  However, what is interesting about Jessica is that even though she has not much of a personality and a social life but she has a successful career not to mention smart and kind too.  She questions herself just as much as the next person and she is envious of Rebecca.  Usually, characters like these are portrayed as troubled or crooked but I am glad that this character comes across as "a good guy". 

I enjoyed reading Dishonored more than the first book because of the family angle.  When I was trying to come up with a word to describe the book, I came up with "interesting".  The second book has more depth than the first book.  It has certainly been a page turner for me.  I cannot deny the fact that Reardon has done a super job with this book owing to her insider knowledge and experience in the legal world and shall look forward to her next book with anticipation!   

Rating: 3/5 (Enjoyed it)

The Silver Needle Murder (A Tea Shop Mystery) by Laura Childs

Opening line in the book:  Theodosia Browning pushed open the heavy door and fumbled for a light switch.

Taken from the book blurb:  Theodosia Browning and the staff of the Indigo Tea Shop are feeling the heat, and not just because it's August.  The Charleston Film Festival has brought them a busy week of catering jobs - and first up is the opening night gala at the historic Belvedere Theatre.  But the festival starts off with a bang when famous director Jordan Cole is shot on his way to the podium and the entire audience witnesses his death silhouetted across the scrim.
When two of the judges quit, festival organizer Timothy Neville asks Theodosia to stand in.  He also wants her to help deflect suspicion from his granddaughter, who worked with Cole.  Reluctantly, Theodosia agrees - only to get pulled into an investigation as perilous as any big-screen thriller...
(Includes delicious recipes and tea time tips!)

This is the #9 Tea Shop Mystery.  All the titles of Laura Childs' books denote unique and exclusive tea names.  In this case, silver needle tea is a white tea from China's Fujian Province.  Picked in early spring, its dried leaves resemble white pine needles.  Brewing yields a pale yellow tea with a buttery almond flavour.  I could not resist dropping into my favourite tea shop for tea and cake after reading this book!

Rating: 3/5 (Good)