Herbs and Homicide (The Faerie Apothecary Cozy Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Novelwright Mysteries (September 27, 2018)
Paperback: 217 pages

Synopsis

Looking for a unique paranormal cozy mystery series that’s lighthearted and fun?

Settle into the cozy countryside of Moss Hill, where house-elves rent rooms, sprites live in gardens, a leprechaun is the best tailor in town, and a half-elf/half human named Carissa Shea owns a pharmacy known as The Seelie Tree Apothecary shop. Life couldn’t be more idyllic for Cari, but healing humans and fae folk proves challenging at times, especially when secrets unfold in The Faerie Apothecary Mysteries.

About Book 1: Herbs and Homicide
In the small town of Moss Hill, customers of all kinds visit Carissa Shea’s Seelie Tree Apothecary Shop. That includes tall and short, young and old, human and faerie. Being half-elf/half-human herself, Carissa personally knows and cares for them all. So, when a grumpy brownie, a type of house faerie, named Miss Morgan dies in her shop, Carissa is devastated. As she learns more about her customer’s death, she realizes Miss Morgan might have been the only thing standing between the Seelie, faeries of light and goodness, and the Unseelie, faeries of darkness and evil. On top of it all, the Sidhe guard, protector of all fae residents, rule it a murder and name Carissa as a suspect! Now she must prove her innocence and find the real culprit before it’s too late – not just for her but for all of Moss Hill.

Review

If you enjoy magical creatures, solving a mystery, and being transported between two worlds, this might just be the book for you.

Many times when I start a book I haven’t read the synopsis or it has been some time.  Many times I think that is better because it opens up many new worlds, characters, and situations that aren’t biased ahead of time.  I say this since books that are somewhat fantasy in nature aren’t what I read but I do enjoy expanding my horizons and since this is a cozy it was bound to be enjoyable.

I was intrigued by the various magical creatures – from elves to leprechauns to sprites.  They all added depth to the mystery and I might have learned a little bit about them.  I think I liked the sprites the best since they were quite comical especially Hiya, Cynth, and Chaos.  I think they made me chuckle because they didn’t speak but you could sense their emotions from the descriptions.

The mystery itself was well written.  I was surprised to discover “whodoneit” and never suspected this character.  Because there are magical beings there are characters that are spelled (or cursed) and Cari was always able to determine something was wrong even if she couldn’t fix the situation herself.  I think Cari also felt a little lost because she is part human and her magical capabilities are less than others.  She is very determined to solve the mystery and my guess is because she is the prime suspect since Miss Morgan dies in her shop.

The only thing that I didn’t like was that the author would use both Cari and Carissa in the same paragraph and I’m not sure why.  It would make more sense to use one or the other when close together.  But this didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book.

We give it 4 paws up.

About the Author

Astoria Wright is the author of The Faerie Apothecary Mysteries, including the bestselling prequel novella Chaos in the Countryside. Intrigued by myths and inspired by cozy mystery writers before her, Astoria tries to combine two worlds with human and faerie neighbors trying to solve puzzling crimes on the fictional island of Moss Hill. She’s also a poet, which shows in the Moss Hill poetry anthology “written” by the characters in the series. Her goal is to bring Moss Hill to life in her stories, because who doesn’t wish we lived in a town with magical faeries as neighbors?

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