The morning sky is a quiet, pale blue/gray with rosy tints around the horizon. It is deceptively beautiful because it is deadly cold. I remember other January days when I was a child and the sense of excitement and adventure a new year brought. I remember bacon sizzling in the skillet, breakfast with Mom, Dad, and my little brother. After breakfast, Dad’s chore for the day might be clearing brush and sprouts down in the hollow. On cold, crisp January days such as this one, sometimes I catch the fragrance of wood smoke drifting up from that hollow. Memories.
Are such memories inconsequential? Do they belong in a neat category labeled “The Past?” Or do those happenings and even the sounds and fragrances remain with me always? My answer is, Yes, they don’t ever die but are a part of what I am today. They even pop up in the books I write and I’m thankful they do. Reviews of the books sometimes show me whether I’ve been successful in painting a word picture for the reader to see, smell, hear, feel, and taste the story. I particularly enjoyed this review of Moonlight Can Be Murder:
Moonlight Can Be Murder is an entertaining whodunit that keeps one guessing throughout the entire book. Nettie McNeill, better known as Ned, has received some mysterious messages from her Uncle Javin Granger, who has recently been released from prison after serving a 40-year term for murder, and has returned to his home in Ednalee, OK . We eventually begin to believe that he did not commit the crime for which he was imprisoned. Ned, who has recently had some problems of her own in Atlanta, decides to go to see Uncle Javin. Sadly, she arrives too late at her uncle’s house in Oklahoma. She finds he has been critically injured, and his house has apparently been searched and is in disarray. He was only able to whisper a few words to Ned before he died.
As we follow Ned’s efforts to find her Uncle Javin’s killer, the author slowly weaves the story, introducing characters, some of whom were well known by Ned when she was a young girl in Oklahoma. However, she and her parents had moved from Oklahoma to Georgia when she was a young girl, and she had lost touch with them. The author, Blanche Day Manos, paints a vivid picture of characters and events, drawing us into the lives of Ned and her reunited friends. Strangely, one image that, for some reason, was particularly memorable to this reviewer was the description of the brass door knocker that was broken and almost destroyed by an intruder. All in all, a very entertaining and interesting mystery.
Another day, another opportunity to make memories that will last a lifetime. Will they pop up some day inside the pages of a book? Who knows? Who could ask for anything more?
Books by Blanche Day Manos are all (so far) cozy mysteries with an extra shiver, perfect for winter nights beside the fire: The Cemetery Club, Grave Shift, Best Left Buried, Grave Heritage, Moonlight Can Be Murder, By the Fright of the Silvery Moon.
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