It’s a mystery week here at Kat’s Corner books. Today I bring you another installment from my awesome mom, and tomorrow’s review will also be a mystery, so be sure to come back if you’re a mystery lover. Thanks, mom, for guest reviewing!

And, here’s mom:

Christmas is Coming.

The temperatures have started getting cooler and leaves are starting to change which means only one thing….fall will soon be followed by Christmas.  Which means the wonderful Christmas movies hit TV and my reading turns to Christmas mysteries.

Last year I picked up a mystery by Joanne Fluke, “Candy Cane Murder”.  Where a trail of candy canes leads to a dead Santa.  I have always enjoyed her writing and her character Hannah Swensen, who owns The Cookie Jar.  This time of year her inclusion of recipes is great for a new sweet baking tradition.

Unfortunately, I was just getting into the intrigue when the story hurriedly came to an end.  This seemed odd with so many pages left in the book.  It was then I realized this was a three story book.  Two more books followed, one by Laura Levine and the other by Leslie Meier.  So, on I plunged into “The Dangers of Candy Canes.”

The story starts with her trying to take a picture of her cat in a Santa hat.  It was, of course, unsuccessful.  I have two cats and could have told her it was a useless endeavor, so why it took a chapter to explain this dilemma confounds me.   After this, it does not improve.  The main character, Jaine Austen, talks to the readers and whines a lot which I find irritating.  At chapter seven I gave up.  By that point I simply didn’t care what happed.

Why these three books were put together I will never know, but at this moment all I can suggest is buy a cookie cook book instead and save yourself some disappointment.

Oh, and what about Leslie Meier’s last story?  Can’t tell you.  With Joanne’s abrupt ending of her story and Laura’s disappointing start to hers I didn’t bother to read the last.

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Poor Leslie, not even getting a chance. Mom can be a tough critic sometimes; maybe I’ll be able to convince her to give Leslie a chance. It’s always tough when we don’t enjoy a book, especially when we like the author and have invested in them for just that reason. But, we all have down days, so as we head into fall, let’s give an author whose had a not-as-well-loved book another chance.