Review: A Cookbook Conspiracy by Kate Carlisle

A Cookbook Conspiracy

Bibliophile Mystery, #7
Kate Carlisle

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: New American Library
Date of Publication: June 4, 2013
Number of pages: 312
Cover Artist: Spring Hoteling

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     BN     Kobo     OmniLit

Waiting on Wednesday May 29th

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine showcasing upcoming books that we are waiting, often impatiently, to be released.


A Cookbook Conspiracy by Kate Carlisle

It’s a recipe for disaster when bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright is asked to restore an antique cookbook….

Brooklyn has always been a little obsessed with food, but it was her sister Savannah who became a chef, graduating from the prestigious Cordon Bleu school in Paris. She and her classmates all went on to successful careers, but none of them achieved culinary superstardom like Savannah’s ex-boyfriend Baxter Cromwell.

When Baxter invites the old gang to participate in his new restaurant’s gala opening in San Francisco, Savannah looks forward to seeing her friends, and even asks Brooklyn to restore a tattered cookbook—an old gift from Baxter—as a present for him. But Brooklyn immediately recognizes that the book, which has strange notes and symbols scrawled in the margins, is at least two hundred years old. She thinks that it probably belongs in a museum, but Savannah insists on returning it to Baxter.

Shortly after receiving the gift, Baxter is found dead, with Savannah kneeling over him, bloody knife in hand, and the rare cookbook has disappeared. Brooklyn knows her sister didn’t kill him, and she suspects the missing cookbook might lead to the real villain. Now Brooklyn will have to turn up the heat on the investigation before Chef Savannah finds herself slinging hash in a prison cafeteria.

Release Date: June 4, 2013

Why This book?

I am waiting on this book because I have read the other books in the Bibliophile Series and really liked them.  I can't wait to see what Brooklyn and gang is up to.

Review: Peril in Paperback by Kate Carlisle

This was the sixth book in the Bibliophile Mystery Series by Kate Carlisle.  In this book, we open with Brooklyn going with her neighbors Suzie and Vinnie to a week long birthday party given by Suzie's Aunt Grace.  Grace is a multimillionaire, who made her money in as a game designer; starting with board games and moving into computer games.  She has become quite the book collector and Brooklyn has done some book repair for her in the past and is really looking forward to seeing Grace's collection.  Grace's mansion right on Lake Tahoe is wholly unique and as Brooklyn comes to find out, loaded with shifting walls, trap doors, holograms and lots and lots of books.  

We meet an all new cast of characters, with only a few familiar faces.  We do get to see anew side to Suzie and Vinnie, as they play a key role in this book. Commander Derek Stone is on assignment overseas during most of this book book, so we only get to see him at the very end.  Gabriel makes an unexpected appearance and it is he that helps Brooklyn deal with finding the dead body on this adventure.  The cat in this book belongs to Grace and seems to take a shine to Brooklyn, causing her to seriously debate getting a cat of her own.  I would not be surprised if in a future book, Brooklyn get her own kitty to assist her in solving crime. 

We only got a small conversation with Brooklyn's parents as well as a video clip of Jeremy and Sergio.  Do sign of Janice Lee or Ian McCullough, though they were mentioned. I did miss Guru Bob and surprisingly, Minka.  

I utterly enjoyed this book.  Each book has had different situations and murders, yet still manages to bring recurring themes back to connect the series.  I can't wait for the next book to come out.  I believe that there is a novella out there, and it has been added to my list to find and read.  I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.

Review: One Book in the Grave by Kate Carlisle

The fifth book in the Bibliophile Mysteries by Kate Carlisle, starts off with Brooklyn Wainwright heading into the Covington Library to see her ex-fiance and good friend Ian McCullough, head curator of the Covington. Ian has a rare book that he wants Brooklyn to take a look at a restore.  On the way in, Brooklyn has a run in with her arch-nemesis Minka LaBoeuf.  Run ins with Minka always leave Brooklyn on edge and feeling just a little out of sorts.  So she is shocked to find out that the book that Ian has given her was once stolen.  She knows because it was a book that she had given to a former friend and commune member, Max Adams for his engagement party.  Max had apprenticed with Abraham Karastovsky during the same time as Brooklyn, but had gone into papermaking instead of book binding like Abraham and Brooklyn.  The worst part was that Max had died in a car crash about 3 years ago and shortly after his death, the book was stolen from his fiance's house.  

Brooklyn finds her first body when she heads over to the bookseller, Joseph Taylor, who sold the book to Ian.  Joe was even given instructions from the person he got the book from to offer it to the Covington first.  When Brooklyn arrives at the bookseller's store, she finds him dead.  His throat was slit with a papermaking knife.  Brooklyn calls the homicide inspector, Janice Lee, that she has been worked with on previous murders.  After also calling her boyfriend, Commander Derek Stone, she discovers that her car tires have been slashed with another papermaking knife.  This one has the name MAX carved into the end of the handle.  

In this book there are quite a few more twists and turns than in the other books in the series.  Also, Brooklyn finally gets a chance to sit down and talk to her parent's spiritual adviser  Avatar Robson Benedict, aka Guru Bob, about her feelings about finding dead bodies.  Guru Bob tells her that he believes that she is finding them because the spirits of the deceased know that she will seek to find justice for them.  Not exactly the answer Brooklyn was looking for, but she does admit that she is wants to find justice for those who can't for themselves any longer. 

We had the usual cast of secondary characters, including Brooklyn's parents, her best friend Robin, her neighbors: Suzie, Vinnie, Jeremy and Sergio, and of course Gabriel.  The secondary characters are becoming more and more interesting and fleshed out.  Minka kept showing up in unexpected places and is really becoming one of the those characters you love to hate.

I really liked this book, but am dragging my feet about reading the next one, simply because I don't want the series to be at a stopping point until the next one is released.  It got 4 stars from me on Goodreads.

Review: Murder Under Cover by Kate Carlisle

This is the fourth book in the Bibliophile Mystery series by Kate Carlisle.  The book opens on Robin Tully, Brooklyn's best friend returning from 3 weeks on tour of India.  Robin's travel company specializes in sacred and mystical destinations all over the world.  She brings with her a book that her mother, who she visited while in India, had asked her to give to Brooklyn to have refurbished and appraised for a friend.  The friend, and older, wealthy Indian man that Robin says is probably in love with her mother included a letter authorizing Brooklyn to do what is necessary to increase the value of the book.  The book turns out to be an eighteenth century copy of the Kama Sutra, with an elaborately decorated peacock on the cover and embellished with tiny rubies, emeralds and diamonds.  Brooklyn is beside herself with joy of getting to take this book apart and clean it up.

Unfortunately, things don't stay all happiness and joy.  The very next night, Derek and Brooklyn are awakened to someone banging on the front door of the apartment complex and screaming.  Turns out to be Robin, covered in blood and in shock.  Apparently Robin's date that night stayed over and Robin woke up to find that he had been shot twice in her bed, while she was asleep right next to him.  So, although Brooklyn didn't find a dead body this time and she isn't a suspect, she is once again hip deep in a crime scene.  This time to protect her friend Robin.

In this book, we really get to know Robin and her background.  Commander Derek Stone is living with Brooklyn and has opened a branch of his company in San Francisco.   Plus the usual cast of wonderful characters are back, including Brooklyn's parents, their mystical advisor Avatar Robson, aka Guru Bob, Brooklyn's neighbor's Suzie, Vinnie, Jeremy & Sergio, and the shadowy Gabriel.  A new addition is the Chung Family that has moved in to the building.  The little boy Tyler is too cute for words and steals the spotlight in his scenes.  

This was a wonderful addition to the series and I am writing quickly to get this review done so that I can go on to the next book in the series.  I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.

Review: The Lies That Bind by Kate Carlisle

In this third book in the Bibliophile Mysteries by Kate Carlisle, Brooklyn Wainwright has returned from the Book Fair in Edinburgh, Scotland.  She is getting ready to do a series of book binding classes at the Bay Area Book Arts Center, or BABA, and has just completed a restoration of a nineteenth century illustrated edition of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens that is going to be used in a 2 week long celebration  of the 175th anniversary of the publishing of Oliver Twist.  There is some tension between the head of BABA, Layla Fontaine and Brooklyn due to Layla advertising the restored Oliver Twist as a first edition.  Basically Layla threatens Brooklyn into keeping her mouth shut, but we know Brooklyn will find a way around that.

When Layla is murdered at BABA one night during one of Brooklyn's classes, Brooklyn is the first on scene and finds yet another dead body.  She manages to hold it together and keep the scene secured for the police.  And boy is she upset that she knows enough to do that.  Luckily Brooklyn's alibi is nice and solid since she was in the middle of teaching a class room of book enthusiasts how to make journals when the gun shot went off.  

In this book, we see an appearance of all our old favorites, such as Brooklyn's best friend Robin, Brooklyn's parents, her neighbor's Vinnie and Suzie, her arch nemisis Minka, her parent's mystic adviser Avatar Robson Benedict, best known as Guru Bob and the hunky Commander Derek Stone.  We also have some new neighbors, a gay couple who look like they will be adding much to future books.  Additionally we get some great background on the mysterious and shadowy Gabriel.

I will admit that after I finished this book, I went ahead and read the teaser chapter at the end for the next book.  And I ended up reading it right away.  This series has really tightened up and just keeps getting better and better.  I really like Brooklyn.  I know many don't like books told from a first person POV, but as long as the dialogue is good and the pace keeps moving, I have no problem with this POV.  Some of my favorite authors have used it successfully and it works for me.

This is a great book in the series and at the ending, the scene between Derek and Brooklyn was sweet, funny and brought a tear to my eye.  I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.

Review: If Books Could Kill by Kate Carlisle

This is the second book in the Bibliophile Mystery Series.  I enjoyed the first one so much, it was all I could do to get my thoughts down on the first one, so that I could begin it.  I can say, that this one was even better than the first.  It could probably be a stand alone book, but I am a very firm believer in reading series in order.  If I don't, I very rarely go back and read any that I missed, unless I am rereading the entire series start to finish.

This story starts off close to where Homicide in Hardcover left off.  Our favorite bookbinder, Brooklyn Wainwright, is just arrived in Edinburgh for the Book Fair, and doesn't make it through her first day when she finds an ex-boyfriend and current client dead while on a ghost tour.  Needless to say, the police look at her as a prime suspect.  Especially as he was killed using one of her own book binding tools.  Luckily Commander Derek Stone is on hand to help keep her out of police custody long enough for her to figure out who is framing her.  

The supporting cast of characters put in a good showing with Brooklyn's best friend Robin, Brooklyn's Mom & Dad, her arch nemesis Minka and even the shadowy Gabriel.  We learn more about the book binding process, especially in telling forgeries and fakes and how the provenance of a book can add to the value.  There was some history of Edinburgh, Scotland, their historical figures and the their love/hate relationship with the British.  Plus we get a little love triangle action between Brooklyn, Derek and Gabriel   Just a hint, but boy is it sweet to ponder.

Overall, I really liked this book.  I have the second, and can't wait to started on it.  Hopefully the rest of the series will continue to pick up steam and momentum.  

Review: Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle

It is hard for some to believe that someone who is such a lover of romance, urban fantasy and certain crime procedurals could also be a lover of Cozy Mysteries. For some reason, I always get a funny look when it is found out that I also love those sweet little books that seem to be the exact opposite of these other genres. But I don’t believe that to be true. Let’s face it, most have some romantic aspects to them, though the romance generally spans several books, and they almost always involve the police in some form or fashion. Yes the urban fantasy is a bit of a stretch, but eh, whatever. *g*

I found this series via a review on Cozy Mystery Reviews. They were reviewing one of the latest in the series, book 4, I believe. It has been some time since I have been able to find a new cozy mystery series since our local bookstore went out of business. The hour and half drive to the nearest bookstore means that I do most of my shopping via Amazon. I was thrilled to find this blog and get introduced to some new series.

This first book, Homicide in Hardcover, introduces us to Brooklyn Wainwright. She is a book binder and was raised in a wine making commune near San Francisco, California. I found the subjects interesting and learned so much about the process to repairing classic books. I had one major nitpick about the book. It was page 14 before we learned Brooklyn’s first name and page 23 before we learn her last name. The book was written first person POV, which I don’t mind, but why did it take so long to learn our protagonist’s name?

There were 2 gentlemen introduced to us that could end up as love interests. I am not sure which one I like best yet, as both sound very interesting. I really hope we learn more in future books.

Over all this was a good start to a series and I can’t wait to read more.