Book Review: Death of a Tom Turkey (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery, #18) by Lee Hollis

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Death of a Tom Turkey (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery, #18)  by Lee Hollis  opens with Tom Farley and his neighbors in a snit because he's the last holdout to sell his house to a property developer who wants to build a resort. When Tom is shot at a pre-Thanksgiving community gathering and hospitalized, Hayley Powell puts her amateur sleuthing skills to good use. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishers for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of this cozy mystery. I received a copy of this book for free in exchange of my honest opinion and review of the story. I loved the fact that this latest installment of the Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery  series had a theme around the Thanksgiving holiday and included live turkeys in the plot. It was good to visit some familiar characters. Since this is the eighteenth installment in the series, Lee Hollis didn't go into much detail of the background of those reoccurring characters; however, she...
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Book Review: Staged (Busybodies Collection, #1) by Elle Cosimano

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Book Review: Staged (Busybodies Collection, #1) by Elle Cosimano prime reading staged busybodies collection elle cosimano

Staged (Busybodies Collection, #1) by Elle Cosimano is the first book in a short story collection and is available to borrow through Prime Reading. With only forty-three pages, it is considered a one hour read by Amazon.

Lyda, a broker, has roped her friend Dani into helping her stage a Victorian house to sell. When the landscaper is found dead inside the house, Lyda and Dani take it upon themselves to investigate the crime.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story because I loved that it was about fixing up a house and is a mystery. It reminds me of several shows that I like to watch on HGTV. 

Since it's such a quick read, there's not a lot of time to really get too deep into character development, but there was enough there to get a flavor of each character's personality. I'd say there was an equal mix of likeable and unlikeable characters. I wouldn't mind this particular story being turned into it's own full length series.

Additionally, there were lots of red herrings to keep the reader guessing as to who was the culprit. I certainly was thrown. Five out of five stars is what I gave Staged (Busybodies Collection, #1) by Elle Cosimano.

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