Lowcountry Bordello

I am really enjoying this series. Liz and Nate are finally getting married. It is going to be a Christmas wedding and they are finishing up their last case before the big event when Liz gets a call from Olivia. When Olivia, in tears, says she needs Liz right away, she heads off to Charleston to see what is the matter. Arriving at Olivia's great aunt Dean's house, she is told that Olivia's husband is dead inside the house. When they enter, there is no body, no blood and the room is fine. Is Olivia going crazy or is there a mystery here.

Liz is smart, dedicated, and funny, even while dealing with her uptight wedding planner, her mother and trying to help Olivia out. The house is a high-end bordello and it turns out that Olivia is a half show more owner. Nate is very present in this book and it is nice to see him play such a huge part. Nate is a true partner in the story, both in the business and as a support to Liz as her future husband. The wedding plans kept interrupting the investigation which reminded us that Liz and Nate are working hard to have somewhat of a normal life. Once again her family are there to support and help her wherever they can. Sonny, her contact in the Charleston PD showed another side as well. He got quite upset with Liz and went behind her at one point. Nice to see he is not a total pushover.

The murder mystery was cleverly plotted, as were how the bordello was started and how it was run by the great aunt. It was an interesting premise based on how expensive these older homes are to maintain. The ending was fantastic. It was totally plausible and the facts in the story backed it up, but did not totally give it away while reading. It is nice that she is able to pull off the supernatural bits with Colleen's presence. I love that Liz is finally going to be able to tell Nate about her spirit friend. Another wonderful addition to the Liz Talbot Mystery Series. I am ready to start on the next one. show less

I love this series and this book continues the fun. Days away from the wedding does not stop Liz from taking on a case of happenings at a bordello. This has the right blend of humor, danger, romance, and suspense for a good mystery. Oh did I forget ghosts? I am hooked

What a splendid jaunt!

Intrepid modern southern belle Liz Talbot is brilliant, and she is surrounded by memorable people in lovely old Charleston and the nearby idyllic island Stella Maris.

Liz is a private investigator: trained, sensible and effective. I do so adore capable, caring female detectives who make sensible decisions and do not constantly require rescuing.

In this outing, her close friend Olivia calls in a panic after finding a dead body in a grand old house she owns with an Aunt. Liz immediately rushes to the rescue, only to find no body, and no evidence of anything amiss, other than a hysterical Olivia.

The next day, however, the body of an up-and-coming local politician is found near that same grand old house, and the show more mystery begins! Liz and her PI partner, who she is set to marry within the week, quickly get to work, diving straight into the fray. What follows is a master class in multi-tasking as she juggles wedding planning, steels herself to meet incoming in-laws, protects innocent inamoratas and investigates the pillars of the community who keep them. Oh, and did I mention she is assisted by the ghost of her long-dead best friend, Colleen?

The quirky characters and their quintessentially Southern names, and the intricacies of detective work are written in such detail that you disappear into the narrative without once being rudely awaken by awkward writing, contrived situations or inconsistencies. It is as if this is your home town, and you are the detective. In short, I enjoyed every word of this book

After reading Low Country Bordello, I feel like Liz Talbot is a new best friend. I can not wait to read more of her adventures.

**eARC netgalley** show less

My first Christmas-themed book of the season is from one of my favorite cozy mystery authors and a Henery Press book.

This is a paranormal mystery series - definitely cozy. For those who eye paranormal books sideways, this is the guardian angel/ghosts variety of paranormal with nothing dark or evil. The writing is faced-paced, well done and fun to read. Liz is a P.I. so we aren't subjected to amateur sleuthing pitfalls, and the small love triangle introduced in the first book was resolved after the second.

The mystery plot takes place in the run-up to Christmas and Liz is helping out a friend who inherited half of a family home, only to find out it's being run as a bordello. Sort of. It is a bordello, but not the kind I was imagining. show more The whole thing was interesting and as Liz is a P.I. we're getting the information as she does so there's no contrivance on the author's part to leave the reader stunned with a surprise, but it wasn't boring or predictable either.

There are some books I'd love to be able to tell the publisher: here's my credit card; just automatically send me every new one in hardcover as soon as it's published, please. The Liz Talbot series would be at the top of my list (along with the Headline in High Heels series). This is one of the few cozy series left that I find myself counting down the days to release, and I look forward to the next one. show less

Please note that I gave this book 4.5 stars, however, Goodreads does not allow for half stars so I rounded up to 5 stars on Goodreads.


Please don't read if you haven't read the first three books in this series. Spoilers will be revealed in some cases due to events in the previous three books.

The only reason why I gave this book a 4.5 stars was that we kind of left a loose thread in this book that I don't know if the author will follow back up on a later date or not. It was just kind of not referred to at all so one wonders how that will get tided up.

Lowcountry Bordello takes place a few months after the end of Lowcountry Boneyard. We now have Liz and Nate happily engaged to be married a few days before Christmas. Trying to tie up loose show more ends on their other cases, Liz finds herself getting involved when her best friend Olivia calls her telling her that her husband is dead in her aunt's bordello. With an able assist by her dead friend Colleen, Liz and Nate put the pieces together and figure out who was murdered and why, and how it all ties into Oliva's aunt's bordello.

It was nice to see Liz so settled and so ready to marry Nate. Readers of the series know that Nate is brother to Liz's ex-husband Scott and though it makes things sticky a bit that they are now engaged, Liz sees Nate as different from Scott as night and day. Due to a surprise at the ending, I can't wait to see how Liz and Nate's relationship changes again with the new information that we readers got.

The case was interesting, and in a couple of places a bit sad. And though this is a cozy mystery, I have to say this one was just as dark as the last book.

We do get some additional details on some characters that have been mentioned, but not seen since book #2 (mainly Michael, Liz's ex boyfriend from when she was a teenager) and Calista (Liz's client from book #2). I wish that we got more insight into Liz's family in these books. We just get the same old same old in some cases. Liz's father does some crazy, her mother is slightly disapproving and tells her to put on lipstick, her brother Blake is disapproving of her investigating cases and she spins lie after lie to him when she gets close to danger. I don't know if we can get a novella starring Merry (Liz's sister) or Blake, that would be nice.

We once again get some new characters in this one, we get a ghost that used to live at the Bordello, some women who are living a the Bordello, and their gentlemen friends who have paid a lot of money to keep the women secure there. We also get a glimpse at Nate's parents in this one. Though Nate's parents, more specifically his mother, are not fans of Liz, one wonders how the next book will showcase them. This book definitely does not show Nate's mom in a good light.

The writing was top notch and can I say funnier in this one than in previous books. I thought the flow really worked. It had to since the case had to be solved prior to Liz and Nate getting married. And I have to say I love that this one really shows them investigating together and we can see what a great team they make.

The setting of the lowcountry was once again shown in a great light, and seriously these books make me hungry for biscuits and red eye gravy. There is a lot of discussion of food in these books, and I am surprised that Susan M. Boyer has not included in recipes in the back yet.

The ending was sweet, but like I said, there was a minor loose thread in this one. I can say that this book does not end abruptly like books #1 and #2 though. I can't wait to see what further adventures Liz and Nate have in Stella Maris. show less

Lowcountry Bordello by Susan M. Boyer is the fourth book in the Liz Talbot Mystery series. Liz Talbot and Nate Andrews are getting married on Christmas. They are working to finish up their last case so they can enjoy the days leading up to their wedding. Then Liz receives a call from Robert Pearson. He is a local attorney on Stella Maris (an island near Charleston, South Carolina). Robert wants to hire Liz to follow his wife, Olivia (who is Liz’ best friend and a bridesmaid). Robert says that Olivia has been acting strange lately. Liz refuses the job. Then that evening Liz receives a frantic call from Olivia. Olivia insists that Robert is dead inside a house Olivia co-owns with her Aunt Dean (Willadean Beauthorpe). Liz rushes to show more Olivia (takes about an hour since she has to take the ferry to the mainland) and they enter the house. There is no dead body. When Liz calls Robert, he is very much alive. Did Olivia really see a dead body?

Olivia refuses to call the police. The house is a secret among the rich men in the community. Originally, Aunt Dean and her deceased sister rented out rooms in the house to college girls. They needed the money to keep the house. But then the men started keeping their “nieces” (aka mistresses) in the rooms (and the men can visit them discreetly). Liz and her fiancé, Nate believe that Liz might have imagined the dead man until a dead body is found in a nearby park the next day. Thurston Middleton is a local real estate developer and was getting ready to enter the political arena. Thurston looks a lot like Olivia’s husband Robert (explains why Olivia mistook him in the dark room). Who killed Thurston? Was he killed in the house (If so, then who moved the body)? What was Thurston doing in the house? Liz and Nate agree to investigate (and then they can turn it over to the police). Can they finish in time for the wedding?

Lowcountry Bordello was delightful to read. It is the fourth book in the series, but it can be enjoyed without have read the other books in the series (though you will want to read them). It is told from Liz’ point-of-view. I normally do not enjoy books written in the first person, but I felt it suited this book. It had just the right blend of romance, humor (there is a very funny scene near the end that will have you laughing out loud), and mystery. In addition, there is a fun paranormal element in the form of a ghost. Colleen is a deceased friend of Liz’. She protects Stella Maris and Liz. The mystery was very good (nice and complicated). It was not an easy mystery to figure out. There is a sweet ending with a lovely Christmas wedding. I liked the author’s nice conversational type writing style. It makes for an easy to read book. I just wish that there had been more clues. We get a lot of information and suspects, but not real clues that can help the reader figure out the mystery. The book also felt a little rushed. Everything was crunched into just four days. There is a lot going on in the book. There are the preparations for the wedding (with a controlling wedding planner), the murder mystery, Christmas, and much more. I wish it had been spaced out a little more over a couple of weeks instead of days (leaves a person feeling a little anxious). I liked the paranormal element, but I felt there was not enough of it. I wanted more (I liked what there was though). I give Lowcountry Bordello 4 out of 5 stars. I will definitely be reading more books by Susan Boyer.

I received a complimentary copy of Lowcountry Bordello from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

Planning a wedding is stressful enough. Add in that it is nearly Christmas and add in that your bridesmaid has found a dead body … that somehow disappears, and Liz Talbot has an overflowing plate of chaos. Her fiancé, Nate Andrews, is also her partner in their investigative agency, Talbot and Andrews. They go to meet with Robert and Olivia Pearson to get more details of the body she saw lying on the parlor floor of Olivia’s Aunt Willowdean’s Charleston home. There had been absolutely no evidence remaining that would confirm a dead body had been there. However, within hours, police found a dead body in the park which seemed eerily similar to Olivia’s description of the body on the parlor floor. This body was politician, Thurston show more Middleton. Liz’s friend, Charleston detective Sonny Ravenel, was working on that investigation. To Nate, it seems obvious that two bodies are one and the same. Liz, listening to the advice of her ghost friend, Colleen, is not ready to agree to that yet.

Add even more chaos to the mix, like Aunt Willowdean’s house had been used for prostitution, Olivia is a partial owner, and Robert is an attorney and on the Stella Maris council and the investigation, if leaked to the media, could prove detrimental to his career.

The main characters, as usual, are fun. Colleen is a quirky ghost who appears when her childhood friend, Liz, is in danger. I loved the mystery and the way the author pulled the story together with some delightful twists. This is the fourth in the Liz Talbot series, which is a bit paranormal and a bit cozy. They are overall very enjoyable reads. If you’d like to know more about fictional Stella Maris, the author’s website, http://www.susanmboyerbooks.com/#, includes a tab with a map and a “Who’s Who” in Stella Maris. Rating: 4 out of 5. show less