52 Reads Week 2: English Tea Murder by Leslie Meier

Happy Friday!   If you’re just stopping by and this is the first you have heard of the 52 Reads in 52 Weeks series, please pop on over to the introduction post here.  In case you don’t want to hop on over there, here’s the nutshell description:  Each Friday I will post my thoughts on the book I read that week, and share what I’ll be reading the following week, and I’m doing this for 52 Weeks.  If you missed last week’s review, you can find it here.

This week I read English Tea Murder by Leslie Meier.  The author’s site didn’t have a synopsis, so here’s a link to the title on the Indigo Chapters website.  (Just a side note here, this is not an affiliate link)  And now, on to the good stuff.

Characters:

Leslie Meier has crafted a wonderful cast of characters in this book.  They are real and quirky, and certainly not perfect, a fabulous combination.  There was a good mix of lovable, likable, tolerable, and deplorable people, and I think that added a nice richness to the cast.

Settings:

The book is set in London, England.  Many historic sites are visited throughout the novel, and they add a wonderful backdrop to the story.  Ms. Meier’s attention to detail is perfectly balanced with the weight of the story.  You see places through the main characters eyes, and get enough information to form a picture without being bombarded by descriptions.

Plot:

This one is a mystery through and through, and a cozy one at that.  The characters are on a guided tour to England, and the story begins on the flight over from America.  You know there’s a mystery, because it’s the genre of the book, but this mystery had a gentle build-up.  Because it is part of a series there are a few hints at side plots, but nothing that takes away from the main story.  This one read well as a stand-alone.

Final Thoughts:

This book was a wonderful, easy to read story.  Perfect for when you want a little down time.  The story was intriguing enough to keep you guessing, but not so involved that you couldn’t walk away from it and come back later.  It would be a great decompression read for those times when you want something to read, but you don’t want to have to think too much.  It’s a wondering book, a pondering book, and all in all a wonderful read.

This week I’m switching gears and reading something with a little more dramatic flare, The Last Romanov, by Dora Levy Mossanen.  

What have you been reading lately?