Tim Myers, a.k.a. Melissa Glazer, has yet another winning cozy series on his hands with the debut of A Murderous Glaze, featuring pottery shop owner, Carolyn Emerson. The setting is a cozy, small town in Vermont, and the book opens with the murder of Betty Wickline having already taken place inside Carolyn's shop, Fire At Will, the night before. Since Betty was murdered inside Carolyn's shop with one of Carolyn's tools, and since her animosity toward Betty was common knowledge, the town sheriff, John Hodges, considers Carolyn a viable suspect, or is that just to deflect suspicion from himself?

When the entire town starts to treat Carolyn like some sort of pariah and her business dwindles down to nothing, she decides to take matters into her own hands. She enlists the help of an unlikely bunch of investigators - the Firing Squad - a group of artisans from all walks of life (including a reformed crook and a retired judge) who meet regularly at Fire At Will to share their lives and their love of pottery. They waste no time uncovering all sorts of interesting information about Betty and all kinds of motives for plenty of people to want to hasten her demise.

Carolyn is a likable, albeit somewhat abrasive, middle-aged woman with a sweetheart of a husband, Bill. Carolyn's proclivity for sarcastic wit tends to get her into trouble at times and is undoubtedly part of the reason that some of the townsfolk think her capable of murder. But underneath her gruff exterior, Carolyn is actually a bit of a sweetheart herself. She is the kind of friend anyone would be glad to have on their side, and she obviously instills that same fierce loyalty in her own family and friends. Watching them go out on a limb for one another was heartwarming!

The ending was quite interesting, and leaves the reader with a few unanswered questions - undoubtedly in order to keep us anxiously awaiting the next book in the series!

Share/Like this Review?

The first in the Pottery series from Tim Myers writing as Melissa Glazer, and I was expecting much more. The characters didn't have much depth, and Carolyn, the protagonist, was quite the snippy thing at times. I understand the author was trying to show she had a temper and a biting wit, but was a softy underneath. But I didn't buy it. I didn't like how she spoke to people, especially her husband, and she wasn't all that likable. She was convinced from the first page of the book that the Sheriff was incompetent because he'd blamed her son "years before" for an act of vandalism, so loudly went about announcing she was going to investigate this murder, withholding evidence and doing what she wanted.
I found the characters less than two dimensional and didn't really care about any of them. There were several loose ends at the end of the book as well, although I'm sure it was done to keep us guessing into the next book. It just all rang false to me. I'm glad I got it at the library and didn't spend a credit on it! Melissa Glazer is a pseudonym for Tim Myers, whose Candleshop Mysteries I really enjoy. But he just didn't seem to balance this book as well as his Candleshop ones.

Share/Like this Review?

Not my favorite cozy mystery ... I thought the characters were .. I dunno ... "forced" in a way .... They certainly didn't act like "real" people.

The author (Tim Myers, under the pseudonym of Melissa Glazer) has been writing cozies for many years, so maybe he just needs time to get "more comfortable" with this new crew. Or maybe Tim Myers should stick to writing about male protagonists, because he just didn't capture a female's state of mind ....

Share/Like this Review?

I have to say this was not the best book I've read. The plot seems to have been written oddly,with the murder taking place before the book starts. And I didn't really feel like the victim was explained well either. Her full story just never seemed to make much of an appearance, so it was hard to summon up much enthusiasm as to why she was really killed. The main character, sleuth, seemed to me to be a very smarmy, disrespectful and at times immature. None of the characters jumped out at me and I really felt no connection to any of them. In fact, I really didn't care whether the mc, who was a suspect in the murder, went to jail or not. She was certainly insubordinate enough to land there several times for obstruction of justice. I have the second book in the series which I will try, perhaps it will be much better.

I really love all the other Tim Myers book series, I'm hoping this one will improve.

Share/Like this Review?

I was really disappointed in this book. It's totally outside the realm of reality. I expected to like it because I've read a lot of books by this author writing as himself. He shouldn't have tried this. I had trouble making myself finish it.

Share/Like this Review?

I love Tim Myers (who uses M. Glazer as a pseudonym), but I didn't really love this book. It was OK, but not great. There were plenty of suspects, but I feel like I still didn't really learn much about the victim and even when the killer was revealed, I didn't quite understand why the murderer had done her in. It just didn't seem to work for me. I'm debating whether or not to order the second book in this series. The reviews on here seem to be more positive than the ones for this book so maybe I will give it a shot.

Share/Like this Review?

I found the heorine of this mystery to be rather unlikable. The supporting characters were interesting enough to get me to finish it though. As for the mystery itself, I with the author had introduced us to the victim before killing her off before the book ever started. Not terrible but not great either. Oh and there seemed to be a lot of typos in the book.

Share/Like this Review?

Mediocre. I picked this up at the library because I like pottery, and a cozy series with a pottery theme appealed to me. Unfortunately, the writing was sadly wanting. It started out ok, with pottery shop owner Carolyn Emerson finding the dead body of one of the town's most unlikeable residents in her establishment. The police of course suspect her, and the townspeople start avoiding her shop. Because of a previous run-in with him, she does not get along with the sheriff. Fearful he will try to pin the murder on her instead of working to solve the case, she decides to investigate the crime herself. Now that started out fairly plausibly, but as we get deeper into the book, the events become less and less believable. Most of the characters were likeable enough, with believable flaws, but I just couldn't connect with any of them. I might have been able to forgive that, and even the scenes that seemed to have no purpose except to add words to the manuscript, but the final denouement was disappointingly flat.

Share/Like this Review?