Tea Time Tuesday

Hello My Fellow Book Dragons. Tea Time Tuesday and tonight our Gem is smooth and blood red with flecks of grey, Heliotrope. In various folklore and tradition this crystal can do many, many things. It has powers to heal, to make one charismatic, talented, to give a person strength or courage, even vitality. In Gem Maker Jennifer Buckley’s Death in a Budapest Butterfly, it figures greatly.

Buckley’s heroine is Hana Keller. She and her mother and grandmother run Maggie’s Tea House in a largely Hungarian populated suburb of Chicago called Riverwood. A quiet community. Not much in the way of crime seems to happen here. One afternoon during an event for a local ladies church society, a woman dies while drinking from a special tea cup that had been on display.

Enter Erik Wolf, Homicide Detective, and single male. He is very serious and all brass tacks when it comes to the investigation. This is not what the Hungarian Ladies want. They want a love interest for Hana. But Hana want’s someone to find out why a woman died in the ladies room in her mother’s tea house.

I loved this book. It was refreshing. All the Hungarian words and phrases that were then explained very naturally in the course of conversation. I don’t think we see that enough these days. All too often, it is as though authors are almost afraid to try it. I remember reading the great Mystery Writers of yesteryear when I was a Nestling (there were not many mysteries written just for youngsters then) and so One would often run across phrases in French or German or Russian, sometimes Latin or Greek. And this was before the Internet mind, so we had to look those words up using dictionaries and encyclopedias or our elders who might have a smattering of language. It is good for us to use our ‘little grey cells, n’est pas’?

Hana is a wonderful heroine, she is not wishy-washy, she forgives quickly, is intelligent and apologetically so. She loves her heritage and accepts that the women in her family have a ‘gift’ and doesn’t make it out to be something spooky or weird, she just accepts and then follows her instincts. Detective Wolf is delightful, serious about his work, he knows what he wants and understands himself. He is not apologetic either until an actual circumstance calls for it. Grandparents and parents are treated as people to be respected and cherished, not old, stupid and embarrassments.

The twists and turns kept me guessing. A myriad of suspects was helpful and several seemed plausible. The conversations were realistic and no one seemed over the top. Excellent job, Ms. Buckley! Bravo!If you love a cozy mystery, do not miss this one..and with all the folklore and second sight it’s perfect for October!

Until tomorrow I remain, your humble Book Dragon, Drakon T. Longwitten

I purchased this book for my personal library.