In Hot Water

July 15, 2021
Kingsbury introduces a new series set on the Oregon coast. With the assistance of her two stalwart workers, Jenna and Gracie, widowed Vivian Wainwright has relied on her mother's English background to make the Willow Pattern Tearoom into a purveyor of all things British in Misty Bay. When Jenna becomes the leading suspect in the murder of her former husband, Dean, Vivian uses her love of detective fiction and the experience she gained as a prosecutor's wife to start her own investigation. Detective Lt. Tony Messina seems certain that Jenna's the culprit but secretly admires Vivian's grit and finds himself attracted to a woman for the first time since having tragically lost his family. His investigation uses all the tried and true methods, but Vivian, Gracie, and Jenna, who have tapped into the town's gossip network, quickly identify a wider array of suspects. Dean, naked except for a pink negligee, was apparently pushed off the balcony of the hotel where he worked. The sleuths discover that he was involved in running an escort service using empty hotel rooms and numbered some of the best-known men in town, including the police chief, among his clients. Though Jenna's discouraged by the suspicious looks she gets, Vivian refuses to give up. Apparently she and her friends hit a nerve, since they start to get threatening messages from someone resolved to keep the truth concealed. A bright new sleuth of a certain age and an interesting cadre of sidekicks brighten the mediocre mystery.

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August 30, 2021
This solid series launch from Kingsbury (the Pennyfoot Hotel mysteries) opens with Det. Lt. Tony Messina gazing on the pink negligee-clad body of Dean Ramsey, a candy store maintenance worker, who fell to the rocks from the top-floor balcony of the Blue Surf Hotel in Misty Bay, Ore. Signs of a struggle suggest Dean was pushed to his death. Dean’s former wife, Jenna Ramsey, an assistant at the Willow Pattern Tearoom, becomes the prime suspect, but her friend and employer, Vivian Wainwright, the tearoom’s proprietor, is determined to prove Jenna’s innocence. Aided and abetted by Gracie Jackson, Vivian’s other assistant, and pet shop owner Hal Douglass, and drawing on a little knowledge of criminology from Vivian’s late attorney husband, the friends follow one clue after another as they seek a killer and a motive—and the reason for the victim’s unusual dress. Despite some reckless sleuthing, Vanessa and her cohorts stumble their way to a surprising resolution. Lively characters and a simmering romance between Jenna and Tony will leave readers looking forward to the sequel. Agent: Paige Wheeler, Creative Media Agency.

September 15, 2021
Widowed Vivian Wainwright, owner of the Misty Bay Tea Room in the small, coastal town of Misty Bay, Oregon, is about to celebrate the second anniversary of the tearoom when her employee Jenna Ramsey becomes the chief suspect in the death of her ex-husband, Dean. Unfortunately, Jenna has made no secret of her dislike for Dean, and she was seen leaving the hotel where he worked the morning of his death. Vivian thinks her knowledge of her deceased husband's career as a prosecuting attorney and her love of mystery books gives her the skills to investigate, so she and her staff interview suspects, slowly uncovering leads to the killer's identity. Complicating matters, Detective Lieutenant Tony Messina doesn't want to believe his chief suspect is guilty, and Vivian surprises herself by beginning to have romantic feelings for her friend Hal Douglass. Well-drawn characters and the charming tea-shop frame distinguish this cozy. Fans of Laura Childs' Theodosia Browning tea-shop mysteries and Sandra Balzo's Maggy Thorsen coffeehouse cozies will appreciate Kingsbury's new series.

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