The mystery had plenty of twists and turns. The characters are well developed. I love the setting of the Hungarian-American family with the small town tea house. This is a series I will continue reading. ( )

Julia Buckley is another of my favorite cozy mystery authors so I'm not surprised that I purchased this novel only unsure as I mentioned in my review of "Pumpkin Spice Peril" by Jenn McKinlay why I purchased the 2nd novel in "A Hungarian Tea House Mystery Series" rather than in sequential series order. The two (2) books were on my to-read shelf together so that's a clue to my mystery.

Maggie's Tea Room is described so vividly that it's easy to visualize how each guest to the tea room is enchanted by the experience. The magic of the tea room is due to the talents of three (3) generations of Hana Keller's family as she works with her mother and grandmother. I would enjoy Hana's role the most of decorating the tea room for the season or scheduled events and choosing which tea service would best add to the festive atmosphere and joy of the guests. I'd also like to be a guest at the tea room to sample the delicious sounding offerings on the menu.

At one of the events held in the tea room, a ladies' group had invited a guest and self-help guru to speak for a "guided reflection." To begin, the guest offered a centering exercise with eyes closed, "Now imagine a little carousel, going around and around. Everyone you care about is on the carousel. Watch them as they go around." It was such a lovely thought that I paused in my reading and imagined.

I really enjoyed this cozy for multiple reasons (in no particular order):
• The charming tea room with entrepreneurs of 3 generations of women.
• The magical possibilities of a grandmother who can read tea leaves.
• The romance of Hana Keller and her Wolf.
• Hana’s friendship with Katie and their treasure hunts at garage or yard sales.
• The intriguing artist who sadly became the murder victim.
• Hana’s cats, siblings Antony and Cleopatra as I loved each description of their personalities.
• The fascinating tale of Hana’s grandmother’s insight that led to rescue of a child.

I'm definitely ready to read the 1st book of this series and then continuing reading the series as available. ( )

Building an interesting set of families for her to deal with. Emerging psychic powers to complicate things. ( )

Death Of A Wandering Wolf is the second book in the A Hungarian Tea House Mystery series.

Hanna Keller is enjoying a rare day off from her family’s tea house. She decides to stop at a yard sale to see if she might find any teacups to add to her collection. Instead, she finds, is what she believes, a rare figurine of a wolf. She explains this to the owner, William Kodaly, and offering to pay more for it. He refuses her offer, saying that he just wants to get rid of it and that he doesn’t trust the person who gave it to him. She also purchases a couple of beautiful oil paintings that he had painted. She then heads to meet her police detective boyfriend, Erik, for breakfast. She shows him the figurine and as he is looking it over, he shows Hanna that there is a tracking chip on the bottom. They immediately leave to return to the house to learn why it has the chip on it. But when they arrive they see a woman coming out of the house screaming and they will soon find the man has been murdered.

As Hana is starting to learn more about Kodaly she meets Henrik Sipos. Not only did Hana learn about Kodaly’s time in her little community, but also when Sipos knew him in Hungary. As a side story, Hana learns that as a very young child had gone missing, Hana’s grandmother and great grandmother, using there psychic abilities to find the missing Sipos. Hana has been trying to get Erik to share more about his family. She is surprised when she stops by his apartment to drop off a note and some of his favorite Hungarian food and as she is about to leave, a set of beautiful twins come out of his bedroom. Hana is of course speechless and the twins take the opportunity to introduce themselves and turn out to be Erik’s sisters.

The book is well-written and reads at a good pace. A great addition to this exciting new series. I’m looking forward to learning more about the twins and Erik’s family.

A delicious-sounding recipe is also included in the book.

I will be watching for the next book in this interesting series. ( )

I really enjoyed Death in a Budapest Butterfly, so when I saw book two in An Hungarian Tea House Mystery, Death of a Wandering Wolf by Julia Buckley was coming out, I knew I wanted to read it. And book two was just as good as the first one, which often isn’t the case in cozy mystery series.

Buckley continues with her excellent character development. We get to know more about Hana and her family, along with their psychic abilities and we get to meet some new characters, including Det. Wolf’s sisters, whom I hope to see in future books. And talking about psychic abilities, Hana is starting to explore hers more, which I absolutely love.

And I adore that Det. Wolf continues to believe in Hana’s powers and share information with her in regards to the case. So many cozies have the police presence or even the heroine’s family and friends discourage her from investigating, so when I find a cozy mystery series that encourages the main character, I get very happy.

In this book, as in the first book, we learn a bit about Hungarian folktales and a lot about Hungarian cooking. Death of a Wandering Wolf inspired me to look up a recipe for a Hungarian casserole that turned out delicious and helped to encourage me to try more of the recipes at the end of the book.

As for the mystery itself, there were lots of suspects and at no point was I absolutely certain who might be the killer. Another fantastic book in An Hungarian Tea House Mystery series and one that I highly recommend. ( )