Fran RizerRezensionen

A Tisket, A Tasket, A Fancy Stolen Casket (A Callie Parrish Mystery #1) by Fran Rizer

Calamine "Callie" Parrish works as a cosmetologist at the local Mortuary. She finds a needle in the neck of a recently deceased client (Bobby) and soon learns he was murdered. Not long before another local (June Bug) ends up dead under suspicions as well. Callie's life is in danger as she gets closer to solving the crimes.

A fast paced story with likable characters, an interesting setting (The Mortuary) and plenty of suspects. Told with a splash of humor and classic who-done-it style I was hooked from the first page. Overall I found A Tisket, A Tasket, A Fancy Stolen Casket enjoyable and feel those who love a good cozy murder/mystery will enjoy it as well.

A book that is more a fun read than solving a mystery. There is a range of unique characters with their quirk-some behaviors: twin brothers as owners, a blind BSF, the doctor date, her family of brothers, the Dane puppy, and more. Enjoyed Callie's outlook on life at the funeral home, having been a kng teacher, and the blow up bra.

...that the personages in a tale shall always be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others.” —Mark Twain

While Fran Rizer’s novel A Corpse Under the Christmas Tree is more character driven than plot driven, the reader is immediately rewarded with a protagonist they will enjoy meeting and befriending.
You can definitely tell who is alive in this novel!

I say, give me the next one!

The first in the Callie Parrish series, this was a great cozy mystery. It was fast-paced from the first page. Callie is a true southern gal, who loves to shop at Victoria's Secret and eat at Bojangles. She works as a mortuary cosmetologist and enjoys her job a lot. One of the bodies that comes into the funeral home causes a whole lot of trouble though, which leads to a stolen casket, two fighting wives, and Callie finds herself on the receiving end of threatening phone calls and even gets knocked out in the parking lot. Being a mystery lover herself, she can't help but try to figure out who's behind all the trouble, even if it makes her the next target. I look forward to the next book in this series.

This is a great new addition for fans of cozy mysteries. Calamine Lotion Parrish is a mortuary cosmetologist and a very likeable and fully drawn protagonist. I loved getting to know Callie and her family and best friend Jane, a blind woman who works nights as Roxanne on a sex phone line. You will learn far more than you ever wanted to know about the funeral business. Highly enjoyable.

Calamine Parrish used to have the hardest job in the world --
kindergarten teacher -- but after a few years of trying to deal with all
those wiggly, giggly, squealy children, she quit and took a job as
mortuary cosmetologist at the local funeral home. But when she finds a
hypodermic needle broken off in the neck of an apparent drowning victim
things start getting interesting. And when his fancy mahogany coffin is
stolen from the back room a few minutes after Callie is knocked on the
head at the back door, Callie realizes that she seems to be in the way
of a cold blooded killer.

Ok, I tried to enjoy this book and I have to say that the plot was
beginning to get pretty good, the characters were certainly interesting,
and the feel of the town was all right, I finally had to give it up
after 115 pages. Reason? This book was written in the first person,
which is fine, but the auther used words like "puh-leeze" and
'buh-leeve" each and every time "please" or "believe" was used, and not
just in dialog, either. I could have stood just about anything if it
took place in dialog, but this was in the actual text of the story.

Enough. DNF.½

Not the great cozy I expected it to be. The title was perhaps the best thing about this book for it was rather slow moving, uninteresting and flat. I didn't even bother to finish reading this having lost all interest in the characters lives about halfway through.½