Shelley Costa

Shelley Costa’s mystery stories have all proven to be delightful and interesting. NO MISTAKING DEATH may be the start of a new series, but her writing and wit continue.
Private investigator Marian Warner returned to Carthage, Ohio, to help her half-sister, Joan Fleck, get what possibly the first Jesuit Mission House in what was to become Ohio designated a National Historic Landmark site.
Joan is Director of the Artifacts Authorization Agency based in Manhattan.
Time is running short because a construction company wants to create a complex on the property and is in the process of demolishing the derelict building on the site.
Words and lawsuits fly in as does murder.
In addition to the basic plot, Shelley Costa provides a lot of character building as she lays the groundwork for this series. She also has a lot of subtle, and sometimes no so subtle humor:
“Where the Department of Commerce stored some old metal desks and Joan Fleck.”
“Carthage toiled up there somewhere, hundreds of feet overhead roads, houses, utility lines, smokestacks, feuds.”
“She arched her back, checking to see whether she was still a vertebrate.”
And some observations:
“So broad and square and balanced, like the Chinese character for man.” (I actually had to look this up. She’s right!”)
“‘That’s something I don’t want to find out.’ Sometimes–she realized as she tried to read his face–the truth is the wrong answer.”“
“Get out the bucket, get out the mop. Murder is as good a time as any to do the kitchen floor.”
NO MISTAKING DEATH offers an excellent read as well as anticipation for future books.… (more)

'Practical Sins for Cold Climates' is not the typical Henery Press adorable cozy mystery, yet I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The story is very well written, uncomfortable, haunting at times, and, eventually, honest.

Valjean Cameron, the leading lady of the book, is a senior editor at a New York City based publishing company. Due to her ‘complicated’ relationship with her boss, she is sent to a small settlement on a remote lake in Canada to sign a best-selling author. Being a city girl through and through, she is immediately terrorized by what is considered everyday life to the residents. She encounters misery after hardship after misery, and her reactions are hilarious.

I felt like Val was fighting with her own vision of herself. She starts off timid, and she stubbornly wants to appear self-reliant. As the book progressed, she realizes that accepting herself and doing what she really feels is right, though difficult, is important and worth doing. This book reads as longer than typical cozies because it needs to, for honest character evolution. The mystery has a very satisfying conclusion.

I am a big fan of the Henery Press cozies, and I am happy to see that they are broadening their scope, while maintaining a high level of quality. This is the first book I have read by Shelley Costa, and I am very impressed. Also, I am especially interested in any further books featuring Valjean.

**eARC netgalley**
… (more)

Honestly, by the time I got around to trying to write a review of this (which would be just now), I had to stop for a minute. I couldn't remember a thing. It all came back after a second; there was the instant I thought "I only gave this three stars?", followed closely by the one in which I thought "Oh, right. Yes. Three."

It had its moments. I liked the main character, Valjean Cameron. I liked her friend Adrian (despite the fact that I kept confusing her with her brother Anthony; "Adrian" is usually the masculine spelling) and her aunt Greta, and the sharp young girl she encounters in pursuing answers. I wasn't as enamored with Anthony Bale, perhaps because my entire Catholic background rose up in protest of his choice of lifestyle and choice of cover story.

That was actually a major drawback to the book for me. I found it repulsive that a man who might at any time be called upon to perform acts upon which any church would frown, and who apparently has (or has had) a string of bed-warmers, who openly states his agnosticism (if not atheism) – that such a man would think it was just fine to put on the robe of even a lay brother and pretend to be a man trying to be … good. I would think the hypocrisy would be hard for an intelligent man to live with, but apparently in this case it is not. It was, however, hard to read about, and I was completely unwilling to accept Bale as Val's new love interest.

There are all kinds of comparisons to Dan Brown's exercises in earnest silliness, to the point that I'm a little shocked I would request this. And, while it's better written to a degree that is so large as to be almost immeasurable, there is an awful lot of common ground between That Book Which Shall Remain Nameless and this one. A secret Catholic society looking to change the world is just as silly when I like the main character and don't cringe at most of the writing as when I want to shoot the main character in the face and most of the writing makes me whimper softly.

(It may be the fault of the ARC, but there were a handful of times when the writing did make me whimper, just a little – "Turning to face Bale, her sweater tugged across her breast", for example. Maybe these things will be fixed.)

Also … why, exactly, does a member of a secret society (let me repeat: SECRET) get a tattoo of said society's symbol above his collarbone? Not inside his elbow, or under one breast, or on the back of his knee or someplace else most people would never see it – nope: in a place where it would often show above his neckline.

So – it's better than That Other Book – but that's not a difficult achievement, after all. It falls somewhere in between it and The Eight – on the lower end of the scale, unfortunately. Disappointing.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.… (more)

After the murder of her best friend, Val is throw into a mystery.....or three. First, who killed Adrian and why? Second, why would someone forge a satire of a Christian document and where is the original? Third, who killed a young boy at the monastery and what did he know?
With the help of her Aunt Greta and Adrian's brother Antony, they work to solve these mysteries. Val is smart, funny, and down to earth. Very likable as a lead character. All players in the tale are well developed and come to life on the pages.
Shelley Costa is and excellent writer. The story is well thought out and executed. There were a few typos in my version, but since it was an advanced copy that is expected. But that is the only reason this gets 4 stars instead of 5.
I didn't read the first in this series, but I intend to. I received this book from the publisher for an honest review.… (more)