To Stir Up an Ornate Nest by Shubhangi Joshi

I liked the well-intentioned mood but probably didn't engage enough to continue with the series. By contrast, the villainous sorts stood out as cardboard cutouts, which knocked my rating down a peg. The story was full of some nice people trying to do the right thing and some deeply flawed people trying to do the same, which felt real enough.

The church setting and some of the religious elements felt occasionally heavy-handed to my secular palate but it wasn't preachy. It plodded a bit from time to time and some coincidences felt like a stretch, but on the whole it was solid.

This was a well-constructed cozy mystery, with enough complications to keep me engaged and a number of appealing characters. They are all upset about the death of their fellow parishioner, whose husband has been arrested for the crime based on circumstantial evidence, and they vow to do some investigating on their own. This small group is packed with characters, and despite herself Cooper starts to feel a connection. So she goes to the Hope Street Church but arrives at the wrong time for services, winding up in a Bible study group instead. Cooper thinks little of it until the nice woman is murdered. We've probably all been there.Ī kind office worker chats with her and then invites her to attend her church. On the surface she's fine, holding down a job as a copy machine repair tech, but really she's just marking time. She has returned to the womb, more or less, living in a garage apartment at her parents' house while she tries to sort out her life. Her longtime boyfriend has suddenly fallen in love with someone else and left her behind. Lee’s kitchen!Ĭooper Lee is an unhappy camper. The Sunrise gang jumps into action, vowing to solve this unholy mess-with God’s guidance-and Cooper’s snooping… But the member of Hope Street Church who invited Cooper to join this motley crew-an office worker who got her wedding ring stuck in a copier-is something else She’s dead And her husband is suspected of murder!

There’s a blind folk artist, a playboy meteorologist, an investment banker with a sweet tooth, an ambitious realtor, and a cute shy web designer who just might be “the one” for Cooper. Happily, the members of the Bible group are anything but cookie-cutter, which suits Cooper just fine. Cooper hasn’t attended church in ages, but after getting dumped by her long-time boyfriend-and moving in with her family-she could use some new friends, and a new outlook on life. WELCOME TO THE HOPE STREET CHURCH…where good folks study The Good Book, but everyone loves a good mystery!Ĭooper Lee can repair a copy machine- but can she repair her life? That’s one of the many Big Questions that lead this newly single Richmond girl to Sunrise Bible Study at the Hope Street Church.

To Stir Up an Ornate Nest by Shubhangi Joshi