T. G. Herren

Valerie Cooper is a widow and solo empty nester as her twin sons, Tay (short for Taylor) and Ty (short for Tyler), are enjoying their 1st semester at LSU. A courier’s letter from an attorney’s office begins the most unexpected changes to her daily life and reveals a long-held secret.

A perplexing cozy mystery with © 2022. As I began reading the cozy, I enjoyed the thread of inheritance was different than a woman receiving an inheritance from a deceased relative and moving to a different town or city, sometimes a different state or country. For a while, I thought the mystery of the cozy was only surrounding the inheritance, but then the title wouldn’t have reflected a crime. Eventually, the crime did occur. Eventually is the keyword.

In the meantime, there was a significant amount of cooking with descriptions leading thoughts to culinary cozies. However, one will need to rely on the descriptions as there are no recipes at the end of the book.

It seems the author had multiple thoughts for this series and, instead of flushing out a determination in the outline, decided to smoosh everything together and see what happened.

Within the "Author Biography," notification is provided that T.G. Herren is a pen name of an award-winning author and longtime resident of New Orleans. Work as a journalist and editor is also shared. It is perplexing, then, why many copy edit errors were not corrected prior to publication. In fact, even the book description isn’t accurate on Amazon/GoodReads.

Ah no! Valerie’s best friend and neighbor’s name is Lorna, not Lauren, and the party was at the Krewe of Boudicca, not Athena. This is one to enjoy at your own peril.… (plus d'informations)

A Streetcar Named Murder by T.G. Herren is the debut of A New Orleans Mystery series. I thought the author captured New Orleans. I like that she included the history of the city and events. We get to learn about krewes and their origins as well. Valerie Cooper, the protagonist, is a widow of five years. Her twin boys are enjoying their first year of college. My feelings about Valerie are mixed. I want to like her, but she got on my nerves at times. I wanted her to be less wishy washy. The one time she was brave was when she should not have been. Her friend, Lorna, is a force of nature. I am amazed that the two are friends, especially after learning how they met. Lorna came over to introduce herself to Valerie shortly after the family moved in. The twins were running amok (terrible twos time two), and Valerie was worn out. Lorna quickly got the boys in line (gave them orders) and then the two ladies enjoyed the wine that Lorna brought with her. I would have taken the wine and sent Lorna packing. I found the story to be a slow starter. The mystery did not take place until slightly past the halfway mark. By the time the murder occurs, it was obvious who would die and how. The solution to the whodunit was easy to figure out. I believe the information was supposed to be a twist, but it can easily be discerned long before the reveal. The mystery is wrapped up at the end, so I was not left with any lingering questions. I did feel that there was too much repetition in the story. I lost track of how many times we are told Valerie is a widow, that the family does not know why Arthur was estranged from the family, and that Lorna writes romance novels. The pacing was slow. The overly detailed descriptions and lack of action are the cause (do we really need to know what each person is wearing down to their tie tac or every detail of how Valerie makes her mac and cheese). There is mild foul language and the consumption of copious amounts of wine. There is some humor courtesy of Lorna. As you can tell, A Streetcar Named Murder was not a hit with me. A Streetcar Named Murder is a Southern cozy mystery with an enigmatic inheritance, a rude realtor, an unusual knife, a krewe party, a dying declaration, a disheveled detective, and a surprising revelation.… (plus d'informations)