Saturday 23 December 2023

Isabella in the Cellar (Mistletoe Inn Mysteries Novella # 2) by Margaret Evans , Julie Hatton (illustrator)


When Laura Keene and her husband Connor are invited to spend Christmas with the sixty-five-year-old Kovacs triplets at Mistletoe Inn, mystery abounds. Laura's mostly invisible cat, Empress Isabella, tags along, so you can't guess what will happen! Join the mysteries and the wacky fun as Charlie, Harry, and Will Kovacs each search for something in their family history, but what they find may not be what they expect.In this Volume 2, Harry searches for his grandfather’s red satin cravat to wear on Christmas day. But when Laura and Connor join the hunt in the Mistletoe Inn cellar, they uncover a family secret that Harry has been hiding. What happens next changes everyone’s lives…in Isabella in the Cellar. (Summary via Goodreads)


Margaret Evans has a new mystery series called Mistletoe Inn Mysteries and Isabella in the Cellar is the second novella in this series.

I feel that in order for you to understand this series you need a brief summary of the Second Treasures Mystery series Evans has written. In that series you are introduced to Laura Rage Keene who owns a second hand thrift shop and lives above it. Her family, the Rage's, were one of the founding families of Raging Ford, Minnesota. The Second Treasures Mystery follows Laura as she falls in love with the Lieutenant of the Police force as she helps solve murders that she gets involved in. In this series you are also introduced to her friends and other business owners. There is also a gray cat that lives there, however, only Laura and Connor can see her .... until.....

In this new series, Mistletoe Inn Mysteries Laura and her new husband Connor are invited to spend Christmas and New's Year with the Kovacs triplets at the Inn. The Inn has been in the Kovacs family for a long time and it holds lots of history.  In the first novella in this series, Isabella in the Attic, Charlie, one of the triples is continuing his family's history.  With the help of Laura he finds the answers he is seeking and they are to his favor.  

Now in Isabella in the Cellar, Laura with the assistance of Isabella, helps Harry find their grandfather's cravat that he wanted to wear on Christrmas but couldn't so he really wants to wear it for New Year's.  They also uncover some documents that will change the triples lives ... as well as others.

Isabella is also continuing to wreck havoc when she can and so far two of the triples have seen and petted her ... but they don't understand where she came from and are more confused when she magically disappears.

Evans knows how to weave a captivating story and hook readers immediately ... and who wouldn't love a "magical" cat that is getting bold with letting more people see and love her ? And  Evans really makes readers love this series with this second installment of the Mistletoe Inn Mysteries. 

You can read about Isabella, Laura and Raging Ford with all it's amazing characters in the Second Treasures Mystery series as well as A Trilogy of Holiday Mysteries Starring Empress Isabella. I high encourage you to read the first novella, Isabella in the Attic and  be on the look out for Isabella in the Kitchen.


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