[.ca] Tiles and Tribulations (ISBN 0380819651)

Recipe is the same, even for antiquity series:
The author has developed a proven recipe to satisfy her readers: take a preposterous plot, mix in bizarre humor on every page, add an excellent atmosphere, and stir in a batch of fascinating characters. Then hope that the plot absurdities will be overlooked by the reader. And the flaws are overlooked, unless one looks beneath the surface. For example: A body is discovered behind the wallboard of an 18th century Charleston house. When the wallboard is broken, a terrible stench fills the kitchen. It would appear that there are two problems with this set of circumstances. First of all, if the body has been there since the 1700s, it is highly unlikely that there would be a cloying, repugnant odor. Such an odor would have been detected long ago. The smell of a hundred pounds of decaying meat can penetrate almost anything. Moreover, would there really have been wallboard on such an old house? I'm no expert on Charleston house materials, but gypsum wallboard came much later. The walls should have been lath and plaster and hair, it would seem. If there was wallboard, that would indicate remodeling a century or more after the body was deposited there, and surely the remodeler would have noticed the body. Perhaps a reader should not ponder such things, but I can't help it. Nonetheless, the book is fun to read. That should suffice, and it does.

Pleasant punster:
Tamar Myers has written the Den of Antiquity Series with clever puns as titles and a delightful heroine in Abigail Timberlake Washburn. In this entry to the series, antique-dealer Abby is invited to come to a seance at the home of her friend CJ. Although she is not enthusiastic at the prospect, she agrees after her mother's persuasive argument that CJ needs her friends to come in order to rid her house of an unwanted ghost. Unfortunately Madame Woo-Woo, the medium who is running the seance, is poisoned during the event. Everyone present is a suspect since the poison is found on a tape recorder which was present in the room at the time of the seance. Even Abby comes under suspicion as she had occasion to handle the tape recorder. She pursues the investigation with her usual enthusiasm and has some hilarious meetings with the suspects. Finally, she goes too far, and the murderer keeps her prisoner until......well, guess you'll have to read the book to find out what happens.

Pleasant punster:
Tamar Myers has written the Den of Antiquity Series with clever puns as titles and a delightful heroine in Abigail Timberlake Washburn. In this entry to the series, antique-dealer Abby is invited to come to a seance at the home of her friend CJ. Although she is not enthusiastic at the prospect, she agrees after her mother's persuasive argument that CJ needs her friends to come in order to rid her house of an unwanted ghost. Unfortunately Madame Woo-Woo, the medium who is running the seance, is poisoned during the event. Everyone present is a suspect since the poison is found on a tape recorder which was present in the room at the time of the seance. Even Abby comes under suspicion as she had occasion to handle the tape recorder. She pursues the investigation with her usual enthusiasm and has some hilarious meetings with the suspects. Finally, she goes too far, and the murderer keeps her prisoner until......well, guess you'll have to read the book to find out what happens.

Oh so formula!:
Ms. Myers two series are so formula and so predictable, but I had enjoyed the Den of Antiquity series more than the Magadalena Yoder series, but there comes a time when it just gets to be too much. The humour begins to seem forced, the antics frenetic and disjointed, and the bad guys (or gals) more clownish and unrealistic. That is the case here. Abby is on the trail of another killer and it leads her into peril herself, but somehow she manages to get away without suffering many ill effects. And I haven't even mentioned the editing - that is is so poorly done in each of these books. This book is no different in any way than any of the others, but the ending seems more forced and rushed than usual, especially for the books in this series. It made no sense. That's it. I'm done with Ms. Myers books - this was the last straw.

Got Ghosts? Call Madam Woo-Woo!:
In the 8th book in the Abigail Timberlake mystery series involving an antique dealer who solves crimes, Abigail finds herself at a séance and is skeptical and sharp-tongued as always. It seems her friend, C.J., believes there are ghosts haunting her new mansion, and she hires a medium/psychic to get the ghosts out. Feeling pressured, Abby attends, but when Madam Woo-Woo dies from poison shortly after the séance, Abby must step in and help her friend prove her innocence in the murder investigation. When Abby stumbles on some authentic 17th Century tiles that are worth a fortune on the mansion's walls, she quickly moves to forget the murder and focus on antiques. The fortune hunt is called off, however, when during her search, Abby finds another body buried in the wall. Getting unwelcome help from a group called the Heavenly Hustlers (of which Abby's mother is a member), Abigail must find the murderer before she ends up as a ghost herself. I have liked each of Tamar Myers' books in this series, and the other involving Magdelena Yoder. Her books are witty (although she reuses many of the same puns in several of the books throughout the series) and have me laughing aloud in many cases. This book was interesting and the mystery engaging. I would recommend reading this book if you enjoy cozy mysteries with a bit of humor. The first book in this series is "Larceny and Old Lace". Enjoy! A Cozy Lover