Ghastly Glass (Renaissance Faire Mystery)

Joyce and Jim Lavene's GHASTLY GLASS provides a fine Renaissance Faire mystery including Renaissance recipes and facts as it tells of Jesse, facing a crabby boss, boyfriend problems, and a real murder affecting the man playing the Grim Reaper. A fine pick for lending libraries strong in murder mysteries.

I was really surprised at how much I loved this book. I love the renaissance theme. The new plot had the faire made up for Halloween. With pirates, zombies, ghosts and even, "Death". Jessie and her boyfriend Chase, have a full time job trying out who harmed who, in this mystery. Jessie learns all about glass blowing, which was really interesting to me. I can honestly say.. read this cozy mystery. I really liked the characters and the crazy pirates who kept me in stitches. Banshee and all. The first book in this series was called, "Wicked Weaves". This book to me, was even better than the first book. I am so glad I took a chance and read the Lavene's second mystery. They redeemed my faith in their story ability. Kudos to them both.

Renaissance Village in Myrtle Beach is for the first time in history is decorated to look like the Faire is Halloween. Renaissance reveler Jessie Morton is apprenticing under various master craftsmen to obtain research for her dissertation Proliferation of Renaissance Crafts in Modern Times. This year she is being trained by Roger Trent, owner and glassblower of the Glass Gryphon. She is also reunited with Chase. The strong but gentle giant Ross plays Death and is very convincing as he looks spookily like the grim reaper. When someone kills him everyone at the faire except his killer is shocked. On his chest is a note that states "Death Will Find Thee". His brother Bart takes over the role of death. Someone is also trying to frighten Jessie. When Roger is attacked with the same message left on him as that was pinned to Ross, Jessie believes the latter's nephew stalks him. Although Henry is arrested, Jessie doubts he is the killer. Instead she believes a village resident is the culprit especially when someone else vanishes. Jessie provides a unique look at a renaissance faire as she stumbles and tumbles into one adventure after another. Through her eyes, readers learn what happens behind the scenes and into the minds of the performers especially the revelers who relish reenactments. This is a colorful exciting amateur sleuth mystery filled with quirky characters who endear themselves to the reader as Joyce and Jim Lavene write a delightful whodunit. Harriet Klausner

Jessie is a lot of fun. I really enjoyed Wicked Weaves so decided to give this one a try too. Jessie is a college professor working on a paper about crafts during the renaissance, and she's learning them as she goes by apprenticing to different craftspeople at a renaissance village which is like an ongoing permanent faire. She's 6 foot tall, doesn't like to be called girl and can't resist a challenge. In this book, she's apprenticed to a very cranky glassblower with a son who thinks he's a gift to all women, it's Halloween in the village, and everyone has to go along with it, dressing the part as witches or wraiths. When Death turns up dead and strange graffiti starts turning up everywhere in the village, everybody is on edge. Then it starts to look like Jessie and her boss are being targeted by the killer, and to make matters worse, the police are threatening to shut down the village. Jessie is a great character, she's smart and strong, but clumsy and more than a bit neurotic. Her bf, the very stable and handsome baliff of the village is trying to solve the crime, and Jessie is as well. At times, it's laugh out loud funny as Jessie winds up in one ridiculous situation after another. It's just a great escapist cozy mystery read.