Grace Among Thieves by Julie Hyzy

In Grace Among Thieves, Grace, the curator and manager of Marshfield Manor, has her hands full with a series of recent thefts, a film crew roaming the manor and the grounds, and Hillary, Bennett Marshfield's daughter, who inflicts havoc wherever she goes. When one of the tourists is found dead and another is injured, Grace becomes involved with the case and could end up losing her heart as well as her life.

When this book showed up in my mailbox, I ripped open the package, shouted "Yippee" and started the book almost immediately. I was hoping that I was going to love it as much as I loved all of Julie's other books that I've read. I was not disappointed at all. In fact, I think this one is my favourite one of the series so far! This book, the 3rd in the series, is an awesome cozy mystery. I love reading about this wonderful manor and all of the people who work there. The house sounds magnificent.

Hyzy's characters are great. I just love Grace. She's so busy, it's amazing she has time for herself and/or a love life. I love reading about her job and her relationship with all of the other characters. I love how the series is progressing, but I'm amazed that Grace still has a job after so many people have been murdered since she started there. Not that she was responsible for them, of course. But it does sort of remind me of Jessica Fletcher and Cabot Cove in Murder, She Wrote. You know she didn't commit any of the murders in the town, but you sort of wonder why all of these happen around her. ;)

Besides Grace, I also love reading about Frances, Bennett, Scott, Bruce and Bootsie. Of course, the story wouldn't be complete without characters you love to hate. In this case, Hillary and Flynn. Ronny Tooney is the only character I haven't quite figured out. I can't say whether or not I like him. As far as suspects go and the ending, I'll just say I suspected a few different people throughout the book, but I wasn't entirely surprised at who the culprit was. That didn't make reading the book any less enjoyable. The ending, however, left me a little sad, especially after reading this line from Grace: From this day forward, I knew I'd be more cynical, more jaded.

My only regret is that I read the book already and now have to wait so long for the next installment.

I've read all but two of Julie's books. Besides these Manor House Mysteries, she also writes the White House Chef series. All of them are terrific. For my reviews of the books I've read, see the Review by Author page and scroll down to "Hyzy: Julie".

New words:
bon vivant (page 252): somebody who lives luxuriously, especially good food and wine
ebullience (page 277): lively and enthusiastic

Highly recommended. This is a wonderful cozy mystery series.

For more information about this book or to browse inside, please visit Penguin'swebsite.

For more information about the author and her other books, please visit Julie Hyzy's website.

Thanks to Dana Kaye from Kaye Publicity for this review copy.

Grace Among Thieves by Julie Hyzy, Berkley Publishing Group (Penguin), ©2012. ISBN 9780425251393(Mass Market), 278p.