The Fool Dies Last

February 1, 2022
Miller debuts a series about things that go bump in the day. Hope Bailey and her sister, Summer, own Bailey's Boutique, an Asheville store specializing in things paranormal. Hope lives with their Gram in a haunted brownstone; Summer's married to Gary Fletcher, who's been absent a lot lately, allegedly working overtime. Hope's in the middle of a palm reading when a handsome stranger enters the shop and accuses the sisters of trying to kill a woman. He's interrupted in turn by Gram calling for help from the community center, where she's lunching with her boyfriend, Dr. Morris Henshaw. Roberta King, one of her friends, has died in agony with a tarot card near her body. The handsome stranger from the shop turns out to be Dr. Dylan Henshaw, Morris' son, and he also turns up at the community center, telling Detective Phillips the cause of Roberta's death seems to be anaphylaxis and accusing the sisters of giving Roberta an herbal concoction that killed her. Meanwhile, the sisters' friend Megan, who works in a hotel, tells Hope that Gary's checked in with someone named Misty Monique. Then the same tarot card is discovered with another woman found dead at the hotel spa, tamping down Hope and Dylan's obvious attraction for each other because of his suspicions and the sisters' needs to cover up the ghosts in their attics. Though Hope hasn't done tarot readings since the accidental death of her fiance, she's still an expert on the subject. So when Gram admits to being in a tontine with the dead women, Hope braves the ghosts to find the mysterious killer. Pleasing characters spark the first entry in an often amusing mystery/romance series.

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February 15, 2022
This contemporary cozy set in North Carolina is laced with romance and the supernatural. It features sisters Hope and Summer, who run a New Age boutique. The boutique is located in a house owned by the sisters' beloved Gram. The first hint of trouble comes when one of Gram's friends dies agonizingly at a seniors' spaghetti dinner; shortly afterward, another friend dies, also agonizingly, at a spa. Meanwhile, Summer finds out that her husband is cheating on her, and Hope is accused by the local doctor's son, Dylan, of being a charlatan. When Summer and Hope determine that the deaths of Gram's two friends are likely linked to a bizarre contract Gram signed years ago, they turn amateur sleuths to find out who had the strongest motive to kill two innocent woman whose names were also on Gram's contract. Along the way, Summer develops feelings for the cop investigating the deaths, and Hope, against her better judgement, is attracted to Dylan. Ghosts in the attic, smokescreens, wacky characters, and a vengeful killer add up to good fun for cozy fans.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 28, 2022
Sisters Hope and Summer Bailey, the protagonists of this breezy series launch from Miller (the Moonshine mysteries), run Bailey’s Boutique, “a small mystic shop that sold crystals, candles, herbs, and the like” in Asheville, N.C. While Hope still reads customers’ palms to predict their future, she’s abandoned using tarot cards after a traumatic experience that’s left unspecified for most of the book. Then Roberta King, a regular boutique patron, dies from anaphylactic shock after being served dinner at the town community center, though she displayed some difficulty breathing before eating it. The police question Hope after noticing the tarot card featuring the Fool, which represents “freedom and new beginnings,” sticking out of Roberta’s pocketbook. When another woman dies, apparently from a similar cause and is also found with the Fool card on her, both fatalities are treated as homicides, and Hope and Summer turn sleuth. A subplot involving a hunky young doctor provides some romantic heat, though the solution is a bit of a letdown. Fans of Steven Hockensmith’s Tarot mystery series may want to check out this cozy. Agent: Kari Stuart, ICM Partners.

April 1, 2022

The first in Miller's ("Moonshine Mystery" novels) "Fortune Telling Mystery" series is a well-written cozy with a delightful cast, humor, and traces of romance and the paranormal. Sisters Hope Bailey and Summer Bailey Fletcher own Bailey's Boutique, a new-age shop in Asheville, NC, where they sell crystals, candles, and herbs, and where Hope reads palms and (until a recent tragedy) tarot cards. One day Dr. Dylan Henshaw storms into Bailey's Boutique, accusing the sisters of trying to kill one of his patients with a tincture. The Baileys barely have time to react before Hope and Dylan are called to an emergency at the community center, where a woman has just died--a friend of the Baileys' grandmother Olivia. On the scene, police begin questioning Hope about a tarot card--the Fool--found in the dead woman's purse. It's only later, after another of Olivia's friends dies--again with a tarot card in her purse--that Hope discovers her grandmother is keeping a 30-year-old secret from the police. VERDICT Fans of humorous cozies with a little mysticism will want to try this one.--Lesa Holstine

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