ROCCO reviews E. J. Copperman's INHERIT THE SHOES

 Meow!  Our good friend EJ Copperman, author of the very popular HAUNTED GUESTHOUSE series, has a new book out!  INHERIT THE SHOES, first in the Jersey Girl Legal Mystery series is a home run!

INHERIT THE SHOES

A Jersey Girl Legal Mystery

E.J. Copperman

Severn House, Hardcover

Release date: 1/5/2021

TEN PAWS

New Jersey prosecutor Sandy Moss is tired of petty criminals, and a new job at a glitzy Los Angeles law firm seems the perfect career move. Putting 3,000 miles between her and her ex-boyfriend is just an added bonus.

But on Sandy's first morning as a family attorney, she inadvertently kills her new career stone dead when she offends her boss during a meeting with the firm's top celebrity client, charismatic TV star Patrick McNabb. But that's not as dead as Patrick's soon-to-be ex-wife, Patsy, is that evening, when she's discovered shot by an arrow, her husband standing over her.

Did Patrick really kill his wife in a dispute over a pair of shoes? All signs point to yes. But Patrick is determined to clear his name, using all the legal skills he's learned from playing a lawyer on TV, and to Sandy's deep dismay, she's the only person he'll allow to help . . .

ROCCO's review!

Our old friend EJ Copperman (Haunted Guesthouse series, Mysterious Detective series, Agent to the Paws series) is back with a new mystery series that just might be the best one yet!

  Sandy Moss is a NJ prosecutor who wants a calmer way of life, so she heads to LA to work in family law. On her first day at work, she impresses the firms top client, a roguish actor who plays a lawyer on a tv show.  When said actor is accused of  murdering his soon to be ex wife, the only attorney he wants is Sandy...whether she wants the job or not.  and when Patrick starts investigating the murder himself in an attempt to clear his name, Sandy has a hard time keeping from strangling him herself. 

INHERIT THE SHOES is what Copperman does best. A compelling mystery with a spritz of humor as only EJ can do it.  Sandy Moss is an appealing heroine and Patrick McNabb is her frustrating, albeit handsome, client.  How Sandy keeps from decking him is the bigger mystery, if you ask me meow!  We can see the romantic sparks simmering between these two, so it will be interesting to see how it develops in future books. If you are a fan of his other series, you will love this one. And if you're not a fan, what the heck are you waiting for??????  Get this book now!!!!!!!!!!  Five paws (we'd give it ten if we could) Darn it, we can! Ten paws!

And now...a brief interview with EJ himself!

Welcome, EJ.  Loving  your new book, Inherit the Shoes. Tell us a little bit about it and where the idea came from.

Thank you! It’s about Sandy Moss, a New Jersey prosecutor who moves to Los Angeles to get away from criminal law and start a career in family law. But she runs into a problem when her first divorce case becomes a murder defense because her client Patrick McNabb, a TV actor who plays a lawyer, is accused of murdering his estranged wife—with a bow and arrow from a John Wayne movie.

Where did the idea come from? It’s a very long story, but mostly from the time Alan Alda was asked to speak at the medical school graduation from a major university because he played a doctor on M*A*S*H.

 

We also loved your Haunted Guesthouse series (all your series, really).  Are there any more planned for the future?

Alas, the publisher has not requested any more books in that series, so no plans right now. I have a habit, though, of writing short stories that include characters from my book series. I don’t have those plans right now, but you never know.

 

If Inherit the Shoes were to be made into a movie, who would you like to see cast in it?

They could cast it with trained pelicans and I’d be okay with it. Producers: If you want to make INHERIT THE SHOES into a movie, a TV show, a series of educational filmstrips… you just let my agent know.

 

Is there a sequel planned?  What can we expect?

There is a sequel being edited as we speak, presumably for 2022 or late 2021 (I never know when the books are really coming out). It’s called JUDGMENT AT SANTA MONICA and that’s all I’m going to tell you.

 

Lastly, how’s your good friend Jeff Cohen doing?  Any new books coming out from him?

Haven’t spoken to him in a while, but I know he’s healthy at least. You know, physically. His mental health is always something of a question. No books coming out under his name that I know about. You have his email address; you should ask him.

Maybe we will! Thanks EJ!

Win ROCCO's review copy!

To win ROCCO's review copy of INHERIT THE SHOES, leave your name and email address in our comments section below! winner will be chosen at random by Maxx!  Contest ends midnight, January 29!

 

ROCCO's January Cozy Reviews!

 Me-ow!  It's a new year, so it's time for my first cozy reviews of 2021!

Starting With:

A WICKED YARN

Emmie Caldwell

Berkley Paperback

Release date  12/29/20

Four and a half stars

A killer may craft the perfect crime, but as every knitter worth her yarn knows--murder wool out.

Mother's Day should be a cinch for the good folks of the Crandalsburg Craft Fair, and knitting enthusiast Lia Geiger has a good feeling about this year's yield. But things quickly get knotty when Lia's daughter announces she's quit her job and Lia finds herself tangled up in the murder of her best friend's ex-husband. While Belinda's alibi quickly gets her off the hook, nasty rumors spread throughout Crandalsburg that shroud the entire fair in suspicion.

Could the vendors be responsible for the murder of a man hell-bent on unraveling the fair just days before his death? Lia and her crafty group of Ninth Street Knitters must put down their needles to gather clues and save the crafting community they've grown to love.

A good first entry in what looks to be a promising series.  Also with the requisite cat LOL.

TO FETCH A FELON

Jennifer Hawkins

Berkley/Paperback 

12/29/20

four and a half stars

Emma Reed and her beloved Corgi move from London to Cornwall with the dream of opening a tea shop—but first they’ll have to collar a criminal in the first book in a charming new series.
 
Emma leaves London and her life in high finance behind her and moves to an idyllic village in Cornwall, with its cobblestone streets and twisting byways. She plans to open a village tea shop and bake the recipes handed down to her from her beloved grandmother, and of course there’ll be plenty of space for her talking corgi, Oliver, to explore. Yes...talking. Emma has always been able to understand Oliver, even though no one else can.

As soon as Emma arrives in the village she discovers that the curmudgeonly owner of the building she wants to rent for her shop hates dogs and gets off on the wrong foot with Oliver. Although some might turn tail and run, Emma is determined to win her over. But when she delivers some of her homemade scones as a peace offering, she finds the woman dead. Together, Emma and Oliver will need to unleash their detective skills to catch a killer.

another good entry in a new series.  On a separate note, we see that Berkley likes talking animals now, meow!!!!!!

The Broken Spine

Dorothy St. James

Berkley/Hardcover

1/19/21

Four 1/2 stars

When small-town assistant librarian Tru Beckett sets up a secret book room in her newly modernized library, she discovers that protecting the printed word is harder than she’d ever imagined. In fact, it’s murder.

Trudell Becket, known to her friends as Tru, finds herself in a bind when her library in lovely Cypress, South Carolina, is turned into a state-of-the-art bookless “technological center.” A library with no books breaks Tru’s book-loving heart so she decides to rescue hundreds of beloved tomes slated for the town dump. Under the cover of darkness, Tru, along with her best friends—coffee shop owner Tori Green and mysterious bestselling author Flossie Finnegan-Baker—set up a secret bookroom in the library’s basement and prepare to open it to their most loyal, trustworthy patrons.

But as Tru and her crew are putting the finishing touches on their new book room, the town manager, who was behind the big push for the library’s transformation, is crushed by an overturned shelf of DVDs. Tru becomes the prime suspect as she hadn’t hid the fact that she hated having all of those wonderful books replaced by tablets and computers. But if she gives the police her alibi, she’ll have to explain about the secret book room and risk losing the books.

Tru knows she’s in a heap of trouble, and it doesn’t help that the officer in charge of the case is her old crush from high school, who broke her teenaged heart. To keep herself out of jail and her beloved bookroom up and running, Tru—with the help of Tori, Flossie, and a brown tabby stray cat named Dewey Decimal—decides to investigate. And faster than you can say “Shhhh!” Tru quickly finds herself on the same page with a killer who would love to write her final chapter. . . .

I found this to be an interesting concept for a series. Sort of reminded me of a secret society!  four 1/2 paws!

CRIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINARA

Stephanie Cole

Tuscan Cooking School msytery

Berkley/Paperback

1/26/21

4 1/2 paws

American chef Nell Valenti's high hopes for a successful Tuscan farm-to-table cooking school are in danger of withering on the vine in this delectable cozy mystery.

Nell Valenti is settling into her role of transforming the Villa Orlandini into a superb farm-to-table cooking school, and the time has finally come for a full taste test run. But when Chef Orlandini prepares to reveal his top secret marinara recipe for the first time to a group of American gastro-tourists, Nell realizes she might have bitten off more than she can chew.

Nell begins to suspect that one of the tourists is actually a private detective sent to spy on her by her overprotective father, and the fussy foodies are noisy and disrespectful from the very start of the Marinara Mysteriosa workshop. Even worse, when one visitor appears to be poisoned by the famous marinara recipe, Nell will have to work fast to uncover a killer and keep a lid on bad press before her fresh start is spoiled for good.

We enjoyed the first one in this series and the second one is a good encore!!!!!!!!!

Last but not least......

MRS. JEFFRIES DEMANDS JUSTICE

Emily Brightwell

Trade Paperback/BERkley

/Mrs. Jeffries always keeps her friends close and now must keep an enemy even closer if she is going to catch a killer. . . .

Inspector Nigel Nivens is not a nice man or a good investigator. In fact, he’s terrible at his job and has always done everything he can to make life difficult for Inspector Witherspoon. But even his powerful family can’t help him after he maliciously tried to hobble Witherspoon’s last homicide investigation. He’s been sent to a particularly difficult precinct in the East End of London as penance.

When a paid informant is found shot in an alley, Nivens thinks that if he can crack the case, he’ll redeem himself and have a much-needed chance at impressing his superiors. But there’s one big problem with his plan—Niven’s distinct antique pistol is found at the scene of the crime and even more evidence is uncovered that links the Inspector to the murder.

Despite their mutual dislike for Nivens, Mrs. Jeffries and Inspector Witherspoon know the man isn’t a cold-blooded killer. Now they’ll just have to prove it. . . .

Thirty nine books strong!