Archive | July, 2025

Great Mysteries Part 1: Celebrating with Tea with Jam & Dread and Icing on the Murder

30 Jul

Tea with Jam & Dread
Vicki Delany
I was new to Vicki Delany’s Tea by the Sea series of which Tea with Jam & Dread is the sixth book in the series. Most are set in Cape Code where Lily Roberts owns a tea shop next door to her grandmother’s Bed & Breakfast. However, in this novel, Lily along with her grandmother Rose and best friend head to England for a special 100th birthday gala for Rose’s former employer and dear friend Elizabeth, the dowager countess of Frockmorton, whose family’s castle is now running a hotel. Elizabeth’s family are loath to lose their blood blood status which provides plenty of drama. When there is first a murder and then a missing priceless necklace the trip becomes even more exciting than Lily could have ever imagined. I enjoyed the vivid way that Delany brings the setting to life and gives us an interesting postcard view of Yorkshire. I plan to check out other books in the series. If like me you are charmed by this story, Delany has written several other mystery series including The Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mysteries, The Year Round Christmas Mysteries, the Constable Molly Smith Mysteries and the Ashley Grant Series.

Icing on the Murder
Valerie Burns
The protagonist of Valerie Burns’ Icing on the Murder also has plenty to celebrate with her wedding day drawing near. But on top of baking her own cake and one for a bridal expo, Madison is soon drawn into the mystery of a diva of a wedding planner’s demise. This is the fourth in the Baker Street Mystery series, which I’ve been meaning to check out for awhile. Madison is a great and unique mystery protagonist, a young black woman who previously was a social media influencer, but is now running a bakery she had inherited along with a giant bull mastiff named Baby. There is a little something for everyone in this novel, a sweet romance between Madison and her fiancé, a curious crime with plenty of potential culprits, strong family and found family bonds, and even at the end some tempting apple recipes based on dishes mentioned in the book. You can enjoy reading this book without having read the previous in the series, but if you are curious about how it all started I’ll have a review of book 1 in the series in my blog post Great Mysteries Pt 2 out next week.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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Heart-Stopping Horror: The Library at Hellebore and Certain Dark Things

23 Jul

The Library at Hellebore
by Cassandra Khaw
I’m always interested to check out a new work by Cassandra Khaw. Even when their work is at their goriest there is always something beautiful about the world they have created. The Library at Hellebore focuses on a school for those with dark supernatural powers. This is Dark Academy at its darkest; Harry Potter if the dementors were running the school. Although some of the students apply and arrive by choice, the main protagonist, Alessa Li, however has no other option after she is forcibly enrolled. When it becomes clear that the school is less about rehabilitation and more about using these would-be anti-Christs as fuel for the even more malevolent staff, they will need to use all their powers to if not save the world at least try to save themselves. I thought it was interesting how the school is often symbolized by carnivorous plants and many of the students are associated with insects and plays with the idea of symbiosis and parasitism. Also the idea of the ways love can become dark, obsessive and predatory are explored in a number of the characters relationships. Want to learn more about Khaw’s work; you can read my previous blog posts about Khaw’s The Salt Grows Heavy and Nothing But Blackened Teeth.

Certain Dark Things
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Sivlia Moreno-Garcia is best known for her novel, Mexican Gothic, but she has many other works of dark fantasy and horror that are also worth checking out. I enjoyed Certain Dark Things about a down on his luck young man, Domingo, who meets Atl, the beautiful jaded descendant of Aztec vampires. Atl is hiding from both the rival narco-vampire clan and the cops that would like to rid the streets of her kind. As always Moreno-Garcia does a fantastic job of weaving traditional native Mexican myths and legends in with modern stories with complex characters. Her vampires are unique in their physiology and history. In her feeding and behavior, Atl is often compared to not a bat, but a hummingbird. There is also a slow building romance between Domingo and Atl that added a sweet element to the darkness around them. I enjoyed listening to Certain Dark Things as an audiobook read by Aida Reluzco. If you are looking for more, you can read our previous blog posts about Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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