I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Crooked Curse
by
Jennifer Willis
cozy mystery, paranormal fantasy in a Kindle edition on October 5, 2021 and has 288 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Fatal Fundraiser, Sinister Snare, Tainted Treasure
First in the Haunted Coast cozy paranormal mystery series and revolving around Surly Mudge, a migraine-suffering bookseller and tea shop owner in a small town on the Oregon coast. This tale begins in October.
My Take
This was different with the primary character suffering from constant migraines, and dealing with the constant side effects of her prescriptions and the revolving door of trying different ones as current meds cease to work. I so get that! We know all this from Willis’ use of first person protagonist point-of-view from Surly’s perspective.
It surprises me that Suri is able to make a go of a tea shop and bookstore that she doesn’t work at. Oh, she does open the bookstore, at odd hours, but she’s not really interested in selling. The tea shop, however, seems to do quite well in spite of not offering much in the way of coffee. As Suri says, the Tea Reader is the social hub of the town.
Willis has her own take on magic suddenly appearing in the area with a freak lightning storm. One of the fun results is those boxes of books that appear on Suri’s bookshop porch for customers who haven’t yet placed their orders — the Tori Centanni books could be tailor-made for Suri. It’s intriguing to figure out what might happen in the near future based on those books. I should add that the boxes also include assorted kitsch that’ll make you wonder. As for the Meridian Retreat, its existence offers up interesting tourists.
Surly, er, I mean, Suri, has a reputation as a grump, and she is quite anti-social. I can’t really blame her when those migraines keep pounding away at her. She’s also suffering from a major, I mean MAJOR, guilt complex over an event from the past involving Vandenhauter. Willis dances all over the place with this one, teasing the reader.
So Willis is introducing us to the town and its characters and then drops the inciting incident with the mysterious dead body and compounds it with that obnoxious customer. Oy. Suri is amazingly polite to the old biddy.
Trey Lindsey’s recent past is another tease, as Willis trades on trauma to wipe his memories. Audrey intrigues me, and I’d love to try some of her thought-up tea combinations. They sound tasty!
As snarky as the citizens are, they are supportive when it comes down to it. Who knew? Trey also comes to his own realizations. That should be interesting *eyebrow waggle* for the future of this story and for the series.
Willis has got some odd-duck characters as well as the usual people who live in a small town. It’s those nasty odd ducks, ain’t it always?, who drive almost all of the action. The pace seems to have been quick enough — I certainly read through it quickly . . . and I moved quickly on to the next in the series, Fatal Fundraiser. I hate having to wait until October for Tainted Treasure!
Willis does tend to harp on Suri’s migraines and her PTSD about the past, but I reckon it’s fair as it does shape Suri’s actions and the reasons for how she lives her life. It’s a cryptic introduction at the end that makes me wonder if Loki holds the secrets to Suri’s aches and pains.
Go get it — it’s a fun and free read right now.
The Story
A mysterious murder at the foot of Suri’s beach stairs brings Suri into closer contact with her ex-boyfriend than she desires. It’s also what sets Suri off into tracking down the murderer, because she knows she didn’t do it.
It’s her curiosity that sets off all manner of attacks from the attempted “date rape” to the destruction of her bookshop and the Tea Reader.
The Characters
The tea-drinking thirty-two-year-old Suri “Surly” Mudge, a former librarian, suffers from constant migraines and a susceptibility to seeing ghosts. She’s invested in the Tea Reader and its side shop, the bookstore where Suri hides out.
Suri leaves the tea shop to Barbara’s management. Baristas include the so-helpful Audrey Medina who has a talent for healing, the unresponsive Ashton Leeds, Samson, and Ruth. Customers include Old Gus, who is a cantankerous regular; Joyce Carpenter; and, Joe Stanley, who is the only coffee drinker in Grady. Angel Cakes is/was one of several vendors supplying the Tea Reader.
The amazingly rude Trey Lindsey is another unexpected element. His background is in finance, his manners are non-existent, and it takes him quite awhile to understand this.
Grady, Naghatune Bay, is . . .
. . . a small town whose neighbors include Standish Beach and the Meridian Retreat, which offers up “spiritual sustenance” seminars. Jim “Chowder” Vandenhauter is a sheriff’s deputy and an old, ex-boyfriend of Suri’s. Colin Jung is Vandenhauter’s new deputy. The skeptical Ennis is the Duniway County coroner. (Hattieville is the county seat.)
The “cross-dressing” Phil Lindquist is the mayor who likes to model outfits from Janice’s (his wife) boutique, Chichi. The Knitting Genie is owned by Emmaline Kapul. Joyce Carpenter owns Go Fish and Surf Supply (said to be the best bait and tackle shop for miles). Giorgio’s Antiques doesn’t open before noon. The Calico Café has closed for the season. Bobby Jackson edits, publishes, and writes for the Naghatune Reader, the local paper. His mother, Marla Jackson, writes the horoscopes as a hobby. Marla has a quirky housemate, Verdy, from whom she gets many of her ideas. Jerry Lantz runs the Lantz Boarding House and has a cousin Jamal trying to perfect a fruitcake recipe. It’ll lead to Hilda’s Delights being a successful mail order business. Cathy works at the Driftwood Luxury Beachfront Apartments. Ruby MacKenzie inherited Dina’s Delectables from her aunt, Dina Jeffries, and sells homemade compotes and preserves at the farmer’s market.
Walt Wisniewski founded the Naghatune Taffy Works, a.k.a. Naghataffy, which is now run by his uninterested son, Walt Jr. Benny Fishbein is the senior manager. Cherry is Benny’s wife. The obnoxious Peter Grove is an efficiency consultant. Andrew “Drew” Gaines used to work for the taffy company.
Jake Hurley, a retired lawyer, likes to fish. Gary Spalding? Johnson? has a goat farm and is interested in books on cryptocurrency. Walt is the mail carrier. Howard Clay is frequently on the beach with his metal detector. Mildred Moroni runs Moroni Grocery. Mark Chelsea is wanted for petty theft. Earl Greenbauer. Elma Meyerson’s West Highland terrier, Bobo, can foretell earthquakes, she claims.
Standish Beach
The Tsunami Zone Pub is where Dell is the bartender. Marvin “Marv” Kling, Kirk, Sean, and Figger are some of the clientele. The last three had been friends with Drew and work at Rainbow Boards, which is owned by Bob Blue. The Standish Awakening is getting the answer to a person’s problem. The Salty Pie does a good pizza. It’s a weird combination, but the Sea Witch appears to be a good choice.
Clatsop County
Their sheriff wants the Trey Lindsey case.
I’m guessing that the disaster at the Oregon City library is at the base of all Suri’s issues. Suri shares assorted ghost stories from her past from Charleston to Bowie, Maryland.
The Bandage Man is one of the weirder legends in the area. The fundamentalist Debbi Gaines is Drew’s mother. Not a nice woman from what I hear. Loki is accompanied by a dancing raccoon and a flash of orange fur.
The Cover and Title
The graphic cover is a compendium of the book’s basics — except for that smile on Suri’s face. I don’t think she ever smiles. I did like the blues in the night sky with its sprinkle of stars above the bay with its bits of islands and the lit house on the right. The brown-haired Suri herself stands tall in the middle in a gold coat, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans with a to-go cup in her right hand, her left tucked inside a jeans pocket. Not surprisingly, there’s a ghost looming over her right shoulder. At the top is the author’s name in white. The title spans her lower legs in a black-shadowed pale gold. Below that is the series info in white.
The title reflects that Crooked Curse that went astray and hit the wrong people.
