Single Malt Murder by Melinda Mullet - #review

When Abi inherits her uncle’s quaint and storied single malt distillery, she finds herself immersed in a competitive high-stakes business that elicits deep passions and prejudices. An award-winning photojournalist, Abi has no trouble capturing the perfect shot—but making the perfect shot is another matter. When she starts to receive disturbing, anonymous threats, it’s clear that someone wants her out of the picture. But Abi’s never been one to back down from a fight.


Arriving on the scene with her whisky-loving best friend, Patrick, and an over-sized wheaten terrier named Liam, Abi seems to put everyone in the bucolic village on edge—especially her dour but disturbingly attractive head distiller. Acts of sabotage and increasingly personal threats against Abi make it clear that she is not welcome. When one of Abi’s new employees is found floating face
down in a vat of whisky, Abi is determined to use her skills as an investigative journalist to identify the cold-blooded killer and dispense a dram of justice before he strikes again. But distilling truth from lies is tricky, especially when everyone seems to have something to hide.

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MY REVIEW

Single Malt Murder by Melinda Mullet already has three things going for it before you even open the cover:  Scotland, scotch and Scots!

All kidding aside, there was a very genuine feeling to the village where Abi's uncle lived and ran a distillery.  It must have been quite a jolt for the globe-trotting photojournalist.  And making whiskey, especially a coveted single-malt Scotch, is worlds away from simply bending your elbow to take a shot.

Abi's taking enough shots anyway.  Someone (or someones) do not want her there.  For one thing, she's a city person, and things work differently in the country.  Then there's the fact that she is a woman, even if she is Ben's niece.  Some of villagers don't think Abi should run the distillery because making scotch is 'man's work'.

Things get real when Abi starts discovering 'warnings' in her path: the dead bird on her doorstep, notes that mysteriously appear with mild-to-worse threats and the dead flowers she finds on her kitchen counter upon returning to her uncle's supposedly locked house.  Don't even get me started on the fire at the distillery - or the dead employee discovered head-down in one of the vats.

Single Malt Murder is a tasty tipple in its own right.  The fact that this is the beginning of a series will keep my spirits high for years to come!

One of my favorite quotes EVER comes from an old SNL sketch and seems quite apropos for this book:

"Scotch is a drink; Scots are a people...but we're both quite tasty!"

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MEET THE AUTHOR

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Melinda Mullet was born in Dallas and attended school in Texas, Washington D.C., England, and Austria. She spent many years as a practicing attorney before pursuing a career as a writer. Author of the Whisky Business Mystery series, Mullet is a passionate supporter of childhood literacy. She works with numerous domestic and international charities striving to promote functional literacy for all children. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her family.

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GIVEAWAY!!!

Please go to the tour page (click the banner below) to enter a giveaway for one of 3 e-copies of Single Malt Murder!

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Click on the banner above to go to the tour page, where you will find links to more reviews of Single Malt Murder. as well as guest posts and interviews by the author.  You can also find out how to become a blog host for future book tours while you are there!

(Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book from the author and publishers via Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)

Old Bones Never Die by Lesley A. Diehl - #review #giveaway

Just before Walter Egret is killed in a hit-and-run, he phoned his half-brother Sammy to report that he’d unearthed their missing father’s pocket watch, along with a pile of human bones. The project is put on hold until it can be determined if the site is an Indian burial ground. Then the bones disappear.

The Woman Who Knew Too Much by Tom Savage - #review

Galina Rostova, the hot new star of Moscow’s theater scene—and mistress to a powerful Russian general—has reached out to the CIA. In exchange for information vital to U.S. security, she requests asylum in America. The Company’s top pick for the mission is Nora Baron. The wife of a CIA operative, this Long Island mother and drama teacher has proven to be an asset in the field before. And as an actress herself, her cover will be convincing.

Renegade's Pride by B.J. Daniels - #review

The renegade cowboy returns 

It’s been nine years since Trask Beaumont left Gilt Edge, Montana, with an unsolved crime in his wake, and Lillian Cahill has convinced herself she’s finally over him. But when the rugged cowboy with the easy smile suddenly shows up at her bar, there’s a pang in her heart arguing the attraction never faded. And that’s dangerous, because Trask has returned on a mission to clear his name and win Lillie back.

Monday Booking Things

     

   

Thanks to Stephanie of Tynga's Reviews, Kathryn at Book Date, Ramona at Create With Joy and Janice at Mostly Blogging for hosting these respective link-ups!  (Click on the buttons to go to the respective blogs.)

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STACKING THE SHELVES

     

It was a slow book week, but that's ok.  I've been clear-cutting my gmail, as they stopped me from sending or receiving emails due to being over the storage limit!  So I missed all those "book deal" emails I usually get. ;p

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IT'S MONDAY! WHAT ARE YOU READING?

   

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INSPIRE ME MONDAYS

Cherry Cake and a Cadaver by Susan Boles - #review

Lily Gayle and the gang set out to find a killer after local baker Luxen Natolovich is found dead hours before the grand opening weekend at the new Bed and Breakfast in town, Midnight Dragonfly. As Lily Gayle deciphers the clues around Luxen’s death she uncovers a conspiracy of lies and half truths that could very well be tied to a refugee camp in Mississippi during World War II. The deeper Lily Gayle digs, the deeper the conspiracy runs, and the closer she comes to being the killer’s next victim.

GoodReads * Amazon

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MY REVIEW

I was so glad to get the chance to read Cherry Cake and a Cadaver, having read Death of a Wolfman (the 1st Lily Gayle Lambert Mystery) during August of last year.  The gun rack is full of wacky characters once again, some continuing from the first installment in the series and some brand new for this book.  And I say 'wacky' with a little bit of pride as a quote from the tv show Designing Women comes to mind.  Julia said (paraphrasing) ... "Here in the South, we don't hide away our crazy relatives and friends, and never talk about them.  We bring 'em out and show them off!"

Extra seriousness is introduced in Cherry Cake, as there could be some ties to a WWII refugee camp in Mississippi.

That's one complicated recipe for a book that includes cherry cake, a murder and regional history from 50-odd years ago.  Luckily, Ms. Boles is a master baker of cozy mysteries.  The multiple story elements are mixed together just right and make Cherry Cake and a Cadaver a worthy addition to the series and a tasty read in its own right.

I look forward to see what Lily Gayle gets into in the future!

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MEET THE AUTHOR

Website * Blog * Twitter * Facebook * LinkedIn * GoodReads

Susan calls McNairy County, TN her home ground even though she has moved away. It was here, at Bethel Springs Junior High School that she began her writing career with two friends. They formed their own little writers group that was so secret they were the only ones who knew it existed. She still has some of the stories they wrote carefully preserved in a loose leaf binder and tucked away for safety.

She has worked in retail management, briefly for the Census Bureau and for many years in the investment/insurance industry in the regulatory compliance arena. All of which are left brain activities. So she exercises her right brain activity with reading and writing…just to keep both sides even.

Reading has been a passion since she was very young. As a toddler, her mother read to her from her ‘baby books’ and her Mother tells a story about her holding one of them upside down and ‘reading’ by repeating the story verbatim from memory.

Death of a Wolfman is the first in the Lily Gayle Lambert mystery series. Her previously published romantic suspense novel, Fated Love, is a contemporary paranormal romantic suspense (with a twist of paranormal) set in Memphis, TN. Her first novel, Kate’s Pride, is a historical women’s fiction set in West Tennessee in the aftermath of the Civil War. The novel is loosely based on her own Great Grandmother and published under the pen name Renee Russell.

Life got in the way of writing for many years but now she’s come back to her early love.

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Click on the banner above to go to the tour page, where you will find links to more reviews, as well as guest posts and interviews with the author and book characters!  You can also find out how to become a blog host for future book tours while you are there!

(Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book from the author and publishers via Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours in exchange for my honest review.)

Elementary She Read by Vicki Delany - #review #giveaway

Gemma Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. The shop–located at 222 Baker Street–specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also the home of Moriarty the cat. When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body.

All the News I Need by Joan Frank - #review

All The News I Need probes the modern American response to inevitable, ancient riddles—of love and sex and mortality.

Holden by Delores Fossen - #review

When a baby goes missing, a Texas marshal and a woman from his past discover there’s a whole lot more behind this kidnapping… 

Holden Ryland certainly didn’t become a marshal just to end up busting his ex, Nicky Hart, for taking files from Conceptions Fertility Clinic. But only Nicky knows just what was really stolen: a newborn being held for ransom. A newborn who is kin to both her and Holden. The missing boy is only the start of a mystery that snakes through Texas, winding its way through their families. Bad blood may linger between them, but Holden can protect his nephew back at the Silver Creek Ranch. If they can lay their past to rest to rescue this child, is it possible for them to have a future together?

No Way Home by Annette Dashofy - #review

A relaxing trail ride turns tragic when Paramedic and Deputy Coroner Zoe Chambers discovers the body of a popular county commissioner in her Pennsylvania woods. Inconsistencies surround the horrible accident, but before she can investigate further, she’s pried away by a plea for help from her best friend whose son has been deemed a person of interest in a homicide over a thousand miles away. When he vanishes without a trace, his mother begs Zoe to help clear him and bring him safely home. The task takes Zoe out of her comfort zone in a frantic trip to the desolate canyons and bluffs of New Mexico where she joins forces with the missing boy’s sister and a mysterious young Navajo.