At Wicks End: 5

Harrison Black has inherited his Aunt Belle's candle shop - and the small mall in which it is located, River's Edge. He moves into her former apartment on premises and learns her trade, meets her friends, and uncovers her secrets. But someone has some secrets to hide - like Aunt Belle's fatal accident. The writer has created an interesting world with likeable - and not-so-likeable - characters. Snuffed Out is next in the series, followed by Death Waxed Over. Pleasant reads, I think, and a mall I'd like to visit!

This is truly a charming cozy mystery which draws the reader right through the door and into the candle-making shop, where all sorts of things come to pass. I particularly enjoyed the young man Harrison Black who is the main character. He's not exactly bumbling, but not always overly swift, either. However, once he gets his feet on the ground in his new surroundings, he does begin to better process and understand the events swirling around him. An orphan, Harrison was mostly raised by his Great-Aunt Belle Black, who had purchased (with the help of the local bank) an old building on the bank of a river in North Carolina. She called it River's Edge, and peopled it with a variety of small shops and offices. In addition to her candle-making shop At Wick's End, she made an apartment for herself on the second floor. When she is found dead in the shop, Harrison inherits everything. Although he has little of his own, he's not exactly sure that he wants to pick up and move to River's Edge. However, Aunt Belle has stipulated he must live there and try to make it work for five years, or else he loses everything. Harrison has bounced from job to job, has no particular love interest at the moment, so why not? And away he goes. As he meets the various tenants, he begins to wonder about Belle's death. Was it the accident it looked like, or could it have been something else. After several strange things happen to him, Harrison becomes rather paranoid about his close neighbors. He patiently builds up a case against each of them, only to have it all dissolve into nothing. Finally, however, he guesses right and just happens to have a handy (and most unusual) weapon available at the right time. The characters are all engaging, and will certainly prompt the reader into wanting to know more about them. The plot was more than sufficient to keep me turning the pages, and although I did occasionally get a twinge of `it was -`, turns out it wasn't, after all. I'm looking forward to the next venture at River's Edge.

"At Wick's End" is Tim Myers' first book in his candlemaking series and I had ordered it expecting a light, fluffy read. I was not familiar with his work, but thought that I might learn a little about candles and enjoy a pleasant mystery as well. I thoroughly and completely enjoyed this book! And while, yes, I did learn a lot about candlemaking (at least enough to want to make me want to try the craft), I was absolutely enchanted with the characters that Tim Myers has brought to life! This introductory mystery details the life of Harrison Black who has unexpectedly inherited his Great Aunt's estate. Although the bank owns most of it, this estate includes River's Edge - a shopping mall of sorts, that houses eccentric tenants as well as his Great Aunt's candle shop, "At Wick's End" and an apartment to boot. Retiring quickly from his less than thriving job of selling junk computers, Harrison moves into the apartment. He soon comes to believe that his aunt's death was not an accident. Simultaneously, while immersing himself in learning how to run a candle shop, Harrison attempts to solve his Great Aunt's murder. What captured me so thoroughly was not only the great plot and the long list of "suspects," but Tim Myers' accurate and very realistic portrayal of the problems that confront someone who has suddenly become the owner of a store. "At Wick's End" is such a terrific book that I can't wait to read the sequel, "Burning at Both Ends." Great job by a fine writer!

Harrison Black's great-aunt Belle has died and left him her candle shop, At Wick's End. He knows nothing about candlemaking. She also left him River's Edge, the building that At Wick's End and other shops and businesses reside in, as well as her apartment on the 2nd floor.Harrison has held many dead-end jobs and is happy to stop selling computers to begin a new chapter in his life.It appears that Belle accidentally fell off a ladder. Eve, Belle's assistant and friend, does not know why Belle would have been on a ladder. She says that Belle was afraid of heights. So, Harrison begins to wonder if foul play could be involved. Then her apartment is broken into before he can even move in. Eve begins teaching Harrison all about candlemaking and running the shop. Good thing because he has a very important client come in wanting classes who will only work with the proprietor.Harrison starts looking into why someone would have wanted a harmless old lady dead. Everyone becomes a suspect until he can get to know them and find out if they have an alibi or motive. And believe me, there are some real characters to investigate.Many things begin to happen. Some of them are good, but many of them are upsetting and or bad. To attempt to prove his theory, he has to put himself in danger.The characters are well written and the plot is very well developed with plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing. This is a great new series by Mr. Myers. I have always enjoyed his lighthouse series. This is a great new addition to the cozy mystery genre. I highly recommend this book and can't wait to read about more escaped into candlemaking and sleuthing with Harrison!

Harrison Black is upset to hear about the death of his Great Aunt Belle in an accident at her shop, At Wick's End. He's not too surprised when she leaves everything to him, since they are the only relatives they have left. The will includes the stipulation that he must keep the store open for at least five years and not sell it or River's Edge, the building the shop is in which he now also owns.Since Harrison was at a dead end in his life, he moves the few miles to his new business. He's greeted his first morning there by a break-in at his great aunt's apartment on the premises. Since the place had obviously been searched, he begins to suspect that Belle's death may have been more then an accident and is determined to find out what really happened to her. Thinking it might be one of his new tenants, he becomes paranoid that their offers for help are really offers to search again. Add to that a new business he knows nothing about and an employee at the store who he seems to upset regularly and he has his work cut out for him.I really did enjoy this new series debut. Harrison and his new friends are interesting and believable characters. I especially appreciated Harrison's habit of putting his foot in his mouth on a regular basis, something I tend to do myself. This book puts us in an interesting position. The prologue actually starts with Belle's death, so we know the what and the why, but not the who. As a result, we spend parts of the book waiting for Harrison to figure out what we know and I figured out one major plot point long before Harrison did. Still, the characters were interesting enough to keep me entertained, and the ending was completely believable, both who the killer was and how Harrison figured it out.The characters in this new series debut already feel like friends already. I can't wait to see them again. I haven't read this author in a couple years, but I'm going to have to go back and read his other series as well.