Death in Advertising by Laura Bradford

First Line: Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Moonlighting in a pet shop to make ends meet wasn't exactly in Tobi Tobias's plans when she opened her own ad agency, but there may be a light at the end of her tunnel. She's just been given her first big break. Zander Closet Company needs a catchy campaign slogan pronto, and Tobi thinks she's come up with a winner: "When we're done, even your skeletons will have a place." Unfortunately, there is such a thing as bad publicity when a dead body falls out of one of Zander's showcase closets. Now Tobi has to save her business, but the only witness to the murder is a stressed-out parrot. As first investigations go, Tobi has her work cut out for her.

Laura Bradford's new series set in St. Louis comes out of the gate strong. Animal lovers are going to enjoy the pet shop angle, and lovers of wit and words are going to enjoy the ad slogans Tobi comes up with. Fans of good mysteries are going to be tickled pink, too. The mystery in Death in Advertising is a good one-- I didn't have it figured out, but once the killer was revealed, I could see the trail of breadcrumbs that had been left for everyone to follow.

As with all good cozy series, the cast is the most important thing and these characters shine. I really liked Tobi's voice, even though I wasn't enamored of her slogan for the closet company. She's just the sort of character readers would choose as a friend. Smart, funny, compassionate, willing to help, and she has an excellent support system. 

Sam is the teenage photographer that Tobi likes to work with for her ad agency clients, and she works with his mother in the pet shop. Ms. Rapple and her dog are the neighbors from hell, and closet king Andy Zander is mouthwatering as a possible love interest. Perhaps the best secondary character of all is Tobi's Grandpa Stu, although I wish he'd find another term of endearment for his granddaughter besides "Sugar Lump."  He called her that so often that it began to grate on my nerves. My belief that being called a lump isn't a good thing is probably just a personal quirk. (All readers have them.)

Lumps or no, Bradford's first Tobi Tobias mystery is a winner, and I'm certainly looking forward to book two.
   

Death in Advertising by Laura Bradford

eISBN: 9781516102068

Lyrical Underground © 2017

eBook, 212 pages

Cozy Mystery, #1 Tobi Tobias mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley


 

Make, Take, Murder by Joanna Campbell Slan

Title: Make, Take, Murder
Author: Joanna Campbell Slan
ISBN: 9780738720661
Publisher: Midnight Ink, 2011
Paperback, 348 pages
Genre: Cozy, Amateur Sleuth, #4 Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft mystery
Rating: B
Source: the author

First Line: I was rummaging around in the trash Dumpster searching for my lost paycheck, when I reached down and grabbed Cindy Gambrowski's severed leg.

Finding a severed leg in the Dumpster would be a memorable beginning to anyone's day, and it certainly was to Kiki Lowenstein. The discovery begins a search for Cindy Gambrowski, and while the police are looking, Kiki has to keep on truckin' with her almost teenaged daughter who's an angel one second and a demon the next, with her mother-in-law (who always seems to be the latter), and with her prickly co-owner of their scrapbooking store Time in a Bottle. To put the icing on the cake, it's December in St. Louis, Missouri, and anyone in retail can tell you that the sales figures for this month can make or break a business. But Cindy Gambrowski was a customer, and Kiki can't get her out of her mind-- even when co-owner Bama goes ballistic when the shop is featured on the television news. Kiki searches for clues as best she can during the busiest season of all.

The scrapbooking and retail aspects of this book are very well done. By the time I was finished with the last page, I had an itch to take up scrapbooking-- a craft I'd never had any interest in before. Slan shares ideas and tips that are guaranteed to get any crafter anxious to start a new project. Trying to walk that fine line of supply and demand, a shoplifter who's stealing some of their best items, having enough help in the shop to serve all the customers-- the author made this retail veteran feel right at home.

There were some characters who got on my nerves a time or two. Kiki has a mother-in-law who goes out of her way to be hateful to her. I've said in other reviews that I can do without the obnoxious mother-in-law, and my opinion hasn't changed. Bama, the co-owner of Time in a Bottle, is abrasive to the point of being outrageous. Although the reason for Bama being the way she is is given at book's end, I still wondered why everyone let her get away with her behavior.

Kiki seemed to me to be the type of woman who wants to be liked by everyone... a woman who wants to get along with no fighting and harsh words. Unfortunately, she's not surrounding herself with the right people for her wishes to be a reality. The only time I really disagreed with something she did, however, was when a man walked up to her and her co-workers at 11 PM and asked about a mutual acquaintance because he had flowers to deliver. Come on, Kiki-- what flower shop would spend the payroll to make deliveries at that hour of night?

The search for Cindy Gambrowski is a puzzling one, and although subtle clues are given all along the way, the ending is still a shocker. This isn't your typical cozy mystery. There's more meat on the bone. Yes, the characters are front and center as they should be, and yes, you get a feel for the craft aspect of the book. You also see how difficult it is for a single mother with limited funds to raise a child. But there are even deeper issues-- such as spousal abuse-- that Slan deals with in such a way to make us all stop and think... and wonder what we would do in the same situation.

Did it feel strange for me to begin reading a series with book four? No, the author does a good job of providing enough backstory for things to make sense without bogging down the plot. I enjoyed being in Kiki's world for a while and look forward to meeting her again.

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