#jason blacker

[bookwormconfidential-blog]

Bookworm Confidential: "Four Red Diamonds (Lady Marmalade #1-4)"

"Four Red Diamonds (Lady Marmalade #1-4)" by Jason Blacker:

This book contains the four first Lady Marmalade mysteries; "Poisoned Heart", "Loose Lips", "Heartless", and "Misery's Company". 

"Poisoned Heart":

In this mystery, Lady Marmalade is visiting her friends, Lord and Lady Apleby. They are having some tea and sandwiches on a lovely day, but then the Apleby's maid ends up dead.

Lady Marmalade and Detective Devlin Pearce investigate how and why this woman was killed. But there are five suspects; Lord Apleby who was having an affair with the maid, Lady Apleby who was aware of the affair, her son who was mad with her, her ex-husband who kept asking her for money, and the butler whose advances were not welcomed by her.

Everyone had motives against this woman, but whose motive was motive enough to kill?

"Loose Lips":

In this mystery, Lady Marmalade is planning on taking a vacation at the home of her friends Harry and Genevieve Appleback. But then news of a murder arrive at the house; Maude Bloomfield, who runs a confectionery, is found murdered in her home's study. 

Once again, Lady Marmalade must find the killer among the family and friends of the victim. Her husband, Ambrose, could have killed her to continue his affair with Agnes, Maude's own best friend. Or Agnes could have killed Maude for the same reason of continuing her affair with Ambrose. Or it could have been Owen, brother of Ambrose, in order to stop Maude from continuing to run things at the confectionery. Rufina, Maude's stepdaughter, could have killed Maude out of vengeance for not giving her that promised work at the factory, or Maude's son, Jasper, for not receiving a higher stipend from his mother.

"Heartless":

In this mystery, Lady Marmalade solves a murder...on a train.

Traveling to York on financial business pertaining to her late husband's estate, Lady Marmalade meets a couple of people who have one thing in common; they hate Major Jasper Moss.

During dinner, Lady Marmalade meets Moss and finds out the many different reasons why those at the dinner table hate him. His daughter thinks of him as a stingy man, Captain Houghton blames him for casualties in the war, Lewis Bryan never received his end of the business deal made with the Major, and Winnie Smith and the waiter, Evan Cross, have their own reasons and possible motives for wanting the Major dead.

The Major is dead before dinner is finished and Lady Marmalade must figure out who did it before the train makes it to York.

"Misery's Company":

In this mystery, Lady Marmalade must solve a murder for which the killer has already been caught and brought to justice.

Lady Marmalade has invited four of her friends, Sir Anthony Gibbons, Ellis and Lilly Hutchinson, and Jane Howard, to her home for a lovely evening to enjoy dinner, and a tale of mystery.

Sir Gibbons is known for telling interesting tales, and this time, the tale is that of a recent murder.

In a scenario similar to the dinner that Lady Marmalade and her friends are enjoying, a woman named Melissa was poisoned. Suspects include her husband, son, sister, and friend. They all had motive to kill Melissa, and everyone at Lady Marmalade's home want to figure out who the killer is and how they murdered the woman.

Can Lady Marmalade figure out who was responsible for the murder? Or will one of her friends prove to be a better sleuth than her?

These short stories are cozy mysteries set in the late 1940s.

Each mystery is intriguing causing the reader to want to find out who the culprits are. The stories do share some similarities; things found in usual mystery stories such as greed, affairs, etc.

The mysteries are well written with excellent attention to detail.

                                                                      (ISBN 978-1-9276-2332-9)

                                                            I give this book a rating of: 10 out of 10

This is just my little ole opinion on “Four Red Diamonds (Lady Marmalade #1-4)”. I’m just a bookworm typing out my opinion on a book I read. :) 

To read my more detailed book review for “Four Red Diamonds (Lady Marmalade #1-4)”, go to: http://bookwormdigest.tumblr.com/post/53322277685/bookworm-digest-four-red-diamonds-lady-marmalade

[bookwormdigest-blog]

Bookworm Digest: "Four Red Diamonds (Lady Marmalade #1-4)"

I loved reading this book. The mysteries just got better and better. I was so enthralled trying to find out who had committed the murders.

I liked all of the mysteries, but I especially liked the last two mysteries; "Heartless" and "Misery's Company". I could totally visualize the story in "Heartless". I could see it being portrayed as a T.V. show. The idea of solving the mystery on a train was great, because this added an extra dose of adrenaline. And the story-within-a-story concept for "Misery's Company" was genius. Once again, I could visualize this mystery as a T.V. show episode.

When I read the first mystery ("Poisoned Heart") I was not able to figure out who the culprit was, and I was a bit disappointed. But then I learned how to look for the clues in the mysteries. I was able to figure out who the culprit was for "Heartless", and I was so excited. I sort-of figured out who the culprit was in "Misery's Company"; I had narrowed it down to two individuals and once I was nearing the end of the story, I realized exactly which one was the culprit.

I noticed that there was always mention of food in the mysteries, which I don't mind. And also, I like how there was mention of events pertaining to the time setting (late 1940s). This was enough distraction from the mysteries and it shows that the book contains good writing and great attention to detail (I can't mention that enough; the attention to detail).

To read my general book review for “Four Red Diamonds (Lady Marmalade #1-4)”, go to: http://bookwormconfidential.tumblr.com/post/53322425509/bookworm-confidential-four-red-diamonds-lady