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A TALE OF TWO BIDDIES by Kylie Logan

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A Tale of Two Biddies (League of Literary Ladies)

2nd in Series Cozy Mystery

Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages

Publisher: Berkley (February 4, 2014)

ISBN-13: 978-0425257760  E-BOOK ASIN: B00DYX9KJ2

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My Review

I felt echoes of Murder She Wrote when I started reading this book. I used to watch the show faithfully and I love it that our sleuths are aged like fine wine, sporting gray hairs and a few well earned wrinkles.

Bea and the women of The League of Literary Ladies helped to solve a murder on Put-in-Bay some months ago and were hoping to just talk books and enjoy the celebration of Bastille Day.

But more is cooking than just some rockin and rollin and a Dicken’s Impersonator contest.

One of the locals is murdered and it’s time for these ladies to stick their noses in other people’s business and get it solved before more end up dead.

You expect and get a lot of colorful characters on the island. They move at their own pace and have their own way of doing things.

I live in a small town filled with artists and authors and we get a lot of tourists to our lovely community. It felt familiar on Put-in-Bay.

Having this story take place on an island is a great idea. It makes for a lot of fun reading how these ladies know about the skeletons in some closets. There are no secrets in closed communities and a surprising number of good suspects.

Necessary ingredients for a good cozy mystery are, for me:

A fun title. Check

Colorful cover art that hints at the story inside. Check

Quirky characters. Check

Plenty of suspects and false leads. Check

And funny, determined amateur sleuths that don’t take themselves too seriously. Check

This book has all of these ingredients and a bonus. It’s book two in a series and I didn’t have to have read the first book to enjoy meeting these characters.

4 Stars

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Synopsis

When it comes to solving mysteries, these ladies are in a league of their own…

Summer can be the best of times or the worst of times for the resort town of Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie. For Bea Cartwright, business is booming as guests storm her B and B for the Bastille Day celebration. In honor of the holiday, the League of Literary Ladies is reading the Charles Dickens’ classic, A Tale of Two Cities. It would be hard to make a more apropos selection—especially when they have their very own Defarge sisters, elderly twins Margaret and Alice, who run the local knitting shop.

On Bastille Day, the head-banging rock band Guillotine shows their chops for the tourists—but the celebration is soon cut short. With something needling the Defarge dowagers and secrets that lead to murder, solving this mystery will be a far, far better thing than the Literary Ladies have done before. They’ll just have to make sure to keep their heads while they try to stop a killer’s reign of terror…

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About Kylie Logan

Kylie Logan has loved mysteries since she was a kid. Her dad was a Cleveland Police detective and he introduced her to Sherlock Holmes stories and gave her investigating experience when on his days off, they’d pile into the car and hit the streets to look for stolen cars.  When he retired from the force, Dad became head of security for the Cleveland Public Library.

Crooks and books! Kylie comes by her love of mysteries honestly.

Kylie began her career writing historical romance and her book, “Devil’s Diamond,” was nominated for a RITA award as historical romance of the year by Romance Writers of America.  She’s also written contemporary romance (as Connie Lane), young adult horror (as Zoe Daniels and Connie Laux) and she writes the popular Pepper Martin mysteries as Casey Daniels.

Kylie is currently writing three different mystery series: the Button Box mysteries (newest book is “Panic Button”), the League of Literary Ladies mysteries (“Mayhem at the Orient Express”) and now, the Chili Cook-Off mysteries.  She can’t pass up an antique shop…there might be buttons in there!  She can’t put down a classic book . . . even if she already knows the story.  And she can’t say no to a good bowl of chili.  Luckily, her husband is the world’s greatest chili maker.

When she’s not writing, she’s usually with her family and their two dogs, Ernie, an adorable Airedale, and Oscar, a rescued Jack Russell who came for a short-term stay and ten years later, is still around. Kylie says that those of you who have ever met/lived with/had dealings with a Russell will certainly understand how knowing him has increased her propensity for murder.

Webpage: www.kylielogan.com  Also, www.caseydaniels.com

Purchase Links: AMAZON          Book World               B&N

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