Blood Red, White and Blue

May 8, 2017
In Delaney’s pleasing third mystery featuring retired home economics teacher Mary McGill and her cocker spaniel, Milly (after 2016’s Curtains for Miss Plym), Mary, who lends a hand in organizing every local event in the little community of Santa Louisa, Calif., prepares a bang-up Independence Day celebration, complete with a sensational fireworks display. As people are packing up for the night after the fireworks, Mary discovers the body of a visitor to town, Ian Miller, who’s been shot dead. She alerts the police and takes charge of the dead man’s splendid German shepherd. Supported by her pack of friends (most of whom have a fine dog or two of their own), Mary discusses the murder over endless glasses of iced tea, tracks down suspects, and unearths clues. When another man is found dead, she starts to hone in on not only the murderer but also the perpetrators of another crime. This is a highly enjoyable book for dog-loving cozy fanciers, with charming characters, a fair play plot, and a hands-on heroine.

May 15, 2017
An amateur sleuth who finally learns to use a computer discovers that intuition still reigns supreme.Retired schoolteacher Mary McGill and her cocker spaniel, Millie, have met Ian Miller and his German shepherd, Ranger, before, but she's about to learn a lot more about him once he's shot dead and she discovers his body as she and Millie return home from their town's Fourth of July picnic. It turns out that Miller was a member of the California Bureau of Investigation who was interested in a series of jewelry store robberies. The local jewelry store is owned by Marlene and Jerry Lowell, but Marlene runs it alone since her bad-tempered husband is interested only in designing jewelry and in their second shop, We Buy Gold. Their son, Tommy, a talented jewelry designer like his father who's recently returned home at Marlene's behest, is helping his mother run the store. But when Jerry is shot and nothing seems to have been stolen, Tommy becomes a suspect. The nice man who's teaching Mary to use the computer she recently purchased is another suspect, since he used to be a cop, and Miller's partner always thought he had something to do with the robberies. Nor can the police rule out the two brothers who mount fireworks displays and were silent partners in the gold-buying business. Police Chief Dan Dunham, who's married to Mary's niece, Ellen, has a healthy respect for Mary's intuition, which has already helped him solve several crimes (Curtains for Miss Plym, 2016, etc.). And indeed it's Mary's intuition that once again helps solve the mysteries.Although the mystery doesn't provide much of a challenge, getting there is half the fun with pleasant company like the heroine, her extended family, and several dogs who are quite definite about whom they like.

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February 15, 2016
At the start of Delaney’s delightful sequel to 2015’s Purebred Dead, retired schoolteacher Mary McGill and her faithful cocker spaniel, Millie, arrive early one morning at St. Mark’s community hall in Santa Louisa, Calif., to prepare for the town’s annual spring rummage sale. Inside the hall, Millie growls and heads for a makeshift dressing area, in which they find wealthy Emilie Plym, slumped in a chair, dressed in her bed clothes, and quite obviously dead. The local police chief later tells Mary that the elderly woman was strangled. But who would want to murder harmless Emilie? At the historic Victorian house that’s been home to the Plyms for generations, Mary encounters several shady and hostile characters, from Emilie’s caretakers to family members, who might have had motive to do her in. Missing Plym money is soon the talk of the gossipy small town. Animal lovers will enjoy this dog-focused cozy with its appealing characters, both two- and four-legged.

March 1, 2016
When Mary McGill discovers the strangled body of Miss Emilie Plym, still in her bathrobe, while opening the church for the rummage sale, she can't believe that anyone would want to harm the elderly village favorite. With the help of her beloved dog, Millie, Mary investigates the victim's niece and nephew, as well as her caretakers, and discovers that there were several people who had reasons for wanting to see Miss Plym dead. Matters are complicated further when a second murder occurs, and the victim is one of Miss Plym's home nurses. Delaney is skilled in setting up obvious clues that turn out to be something very different. Mary is smart and snoops in a realistic manner throughout her small Santa Louisa, California, community. Her nephew-in-law, police chief Dan, respects her information without the usual power plays that are found in amateur-sleuth stories. Plenty of wit and humor round out this intelligent, appealing mystery. Fans of Laurien Berenson should be introduced to this series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)