I hope you all had a very nice weekend. We enjoyed ours by trying a new recipe and watching a new show but before we get into that can we just admire this beautiful print?

My dear friend, Christine, sent this to me and I love it so much. She knows me so well. It’s so funny because as my hair has gotten very long I often wear it in a little bun and I would say I spend most of my time barefoot unless I have to go out. I don’t have a pet fox but I can imagine having one. Not sure where I’m going to eventually leave my print so for now just trying different areas around my craft/library room.

Speaking of my craft/library room, I spend part of the weekend cleaning. I want to donate some stuff I no longer use and there’s a great place to donate arts/crafts supplies here in town but with the pandemic they are only receiving donations by appointment and those spots fill up quick.

Oh and the food, we had a Greek Salmon quinoa bowl which was really delicious and filling. We used a recipe very similar to this one. The one we had was also from a magazine but I cut it out a long time ago and can’t remember where I found it.

As far as the tv show we started watching, The Crime, a Polish police procedural. There’s only three episodes to the first season so we’ll finish it this week. It’s not the best but it’s entertaining and we just love watching international crime shows.

On the book front, I had great expectations of at least finishing one of my four current reads and that didn’t happen. What can I say, my reading is just definitely not where it usually is but I’m planning to take a couple of days off soon so hopefully when I have a bit more downtime I can really relax and enjoy more reading.

Anyway, that’s it for me, how was your weekend?

” ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,’ ” Maeve whispered to herself, deliberately striking each key on the typewriter as she said it. Why had she thought working in Mr. Malloy’s private investigator’s office would be exciting? the first thing he and his partner, Gino Donatelli, had wanted her to do was learn to use the typewriter. She would never get the hang of this. She should have been content just being a nanny to the Malloy children.”

Murder on Pleasant Avenue
By Victoria Thompson
Source: Advance review copy

When a young woman is kidnapped from the area known as Italian Harlem, Frank Malloy and his assistant Gino Donatelli are called to investigate. In order to get more details from the voluntary group where the young woman was working, Maeve also joins in on the investigation and goes undercover.

It becomes evident that the Black Hand, an organized crime group, has been terrorizing the residents and when Gino Donatelli gets more involved and tries to look into matters on his own, he suddenly finds himself at the scene of a murder and he’s becomes the prime suspect.

Sarah, Malloy’s wife, also becomes involved in the investigation as she tries to learn more about the young woman and other women who have been kidnapped. Of course as Sarah digs into the background story she finds out the young woman may also be hiding other secrets.

This is the 23rd installment in the Gaslight Mystery series and as I’ve been saying about these latest entries, I feel like the witty banter we saw between Sarah and Frank at the start of this series is gone. Also, some of my favorite characters are almost non-existent. I realize that this book is so Gino and Maeve have their moment in the spotlight but it’s a shame that some of the other characters felt like an afterthought. Unfortunately a bit of a disappointment.