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Stained-Glass #1
Ill-Gotten Panes
FIRST IN A NEW SERIES!
Stained-glass aficionado Georgia Kelly packed up her city life for the quiet of small town Wenwood, New York. But the sleepy village’s peace is about to get shattered—by murder…
After a banking scandal loses Georgia her job and fiancé, she decides that a change of scenery will help piece her life back together. But escaping to her grandfather’s house in the old-fashioned, brick-making Hudson River hamlet of Wenwood, New York, turns out to be less relaxing than she expects. Not only is the close-knit community on edge about their beloved brickworks being turned into a marina to draw in tourists, one of those most opposed to the project winds up dead—cracked over the head with a famous Wenwood brick.
Georgia wouldn’t be broken up over the news except for the fact that the main suspect is the deceased’s biggest adversary—her grandfather. Now, to remove the stain from her grandy’s record, Georgia will have to figure out who in town was willing to kill to keep the renovation project alive, before someone else is permanently cut out of the picture…
Stained-glass aficionado Georgia Kelly packed up her city life for the quiet of small town Wenwood, New York. But the sleepy village’s peace is about to get shattered—by murder…
After a banking scandal loses Georgia her job and fiancé, she decides that a change of scenery will help piece her life back together. But escaping to her grandfather’s house in the old-fashioned, brick-making Hudson River hamlet of Wenwood, New York, turns out to be less relaxing than she expects. Not only is the close-knit community on edge about their beloved brickworks being turned into a marina to draw in tourists, one of those most opposed to the project winds up dead—cracked over the head with a famous Wenwood brick.
Georgia wouldn’t be broken up over the news except for the fact that the main suspect is the deceased’s biggest adversary—her grandfather. Now, to remove the stain from her grandy’s record, Georgia will have to figure out who in town was willing to kill to keep the renovation project alive, before someone else is permanently cut out of the picture…
291 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 2014
13 people are currently reading
424 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
August 17, 2017
Good first book in the series, with Georgia returning to her childhood home and her Grandfather being accused of murder. There was some first bookitis here but there is good potential and overall I liked the story and characters.
June 26, 2014
Ill-Gotten Panes is the first book in the A Stained Glass Mystery series.
After a disastrous banking scandal Georgia Kelly has moved to Wenwood, NY is living with her grandfather until she can get her feet back on the ground. Wenwood is famous for the manufacturing of bricks and the town residents are torn between having the old brick factory turned into a marina. Her grandfather, Grandy is a staunch supporter of turning the building into a marina. One day Georgia is in town doing shopping for her and her grandfather when she stops by an antique store run by Carrie. She sees a Tiffany style lamp in need of repairs and offers to replace the broken pieces of stained glass. Her next stop is the hardware run by Mr. Edgers. When she enters she overhears Mr. Edgers and a Mr. Himmel in a heated argument. Mr. Edger's is opposed to the marina project and Himmel is arguing with the high prices for the projects materials. When Edgers realizes who Georgia is he asks if Grandy didn't tell her to stay out of the hardware store or ask him for any help. Grandy and Edger's were on opposite sides of the marina controversy. The next morning Edger's body is found in his hardware store. Death is attributed to a fatal blow from a brick. Someone had seen Grandy enter the hardware store the previous afternoon and is taken in for questioning.
Georgia knows that her grandfather is not responsible for Edger's death and with the help of Carrie, she off to find the killer and clear her grandfathers name.
This was a very good story, well plotted and with interesting characters. I would have like to have had more information on stained glass working, but maybe there will be more coverage in future books.
Grandy is a cantankerous gentleman, but do believe that his bark is worse than his bite. Carrie's antique store does most of it's business on the internet, so she is quite often available to help Georgia. Carrie has grown up in Wenwood and has a good understanding of the ins and outs of the community and more than willing to share. No story would be complete without a town gossip. In this book that would be Grace who runs the luncheonette. Grace is able to keep an eye street traffic from behind her counter and her ears are always tuned into the customers conversations.
Georgia doesn't have any romantic interests going as yet, it's still too soon after losing her job and her fiance. But Georgia does have an adorable little kitten that she found in a box behind one of the towns shop. Since she found it on a Friday, she figured that would be a good name. Friday, like any young kitten likes to go exploring and see what trouble it can get into.
Looking forward to the next book in this new series.
After a disastrous banking scandal Georgia Kelly has moved to Wenwood, NY is living with her grandfather until she can get her feet back on the ground. Wenwood is famous for the manufacturing of bricks and the town residents are torn between having the old brick factory turned into a marina. Her grandfather, Grandy is a staunch supporter of turning the building into a marina. One day Georgia is in town doing shopping for her and her grandfather when she stops by an antique store run by Carrie. She sees a Tiffany style lamp in need of repairs and offers to replace the broken pieces of stained glass. Her next stop is the hardware run by Mr. Edgers. When she enters she overhears Mr. Edgers and a Mr. Himmel in a heated argument. Mr. Edger's is opposed to the marina project and Himmel is arguing with the high prices for the projects materials. When Edgers realizes who Georgia is he asks if Grandy didn't tell her to stay out of the hardware store or ask him for any help. Grandy and Edger's were on opposite sides of the marina controversy. The next morning Edger's body is found in his hardware store. Death is attributed to a fatal blow from a brick. Someone had seen Grandy enter the hardware store the previous afternoon and is taken in for questioning.
Georgia knows that her grandfather is not responsible for Edger's death and with the help of Carrie, she off to find the killer and clear her grandfathers name.
This was a very good story, well plotted and with interesting characters. I would have like to have had more information on stained glass working, but maybe there will be more coverage in future books.
Grandy is a cantankerous gentleman, but do believe that his bark is worse than his bite. Carrie's antique store does most of it's business on the internet, so she is quite often available to help Georgia. Carrie has grown up in Wenwood and has a good understanding of the ins and outs of the community and more than willing to share. No story would be complete without a town gossip. In this book that would be Grace who runs the luncheonette. Grace is able to keep an eye street traffic from behind her counter and her ears are always tuned into the customers conversations.
Georgia doesn't have any romantic interests going as yet, it's still too soon after losing her job and her fiance. But Georgia does have an adorable little kitten that she found in a box behind one of the towns shop. Since she found it on a Friday, she figured that would be a good name. Friday, like any young kitten likes to go exploring and see what trouble it can get into.
Looking forward to the next book in this new series.
January 26, 2025
This was a fun cosy mystery- easy read
August 17, 2023
Easy to read cozy mystery. Enjoyed the story and the kitten was a character in the book.
March 18, 2017
Great first in a series
The colors in the book cover grabbed my attention so I immediately read the description. The small town setting and the intriguing story sounded perfect.
Georgia returns to her grandfather's house after a stormy relationship leaves her in a downward spiral.
Everyone in this little town knows who she is and Georgia is is welcomed by the residents, with the exception of one.
A grisly murder shakes the small town and when all fingers point to Georgia's grandpa, she knows just what to do.
The colors in the book cover grabbed my attention so I immediately read the description. The small town setting and the intriguing story sounded perfect.
Georgia returns to her grandfather's house after a stormy relationship leaves her in a downward spiral.
Everyone in this little town knows who she is and Georgia is is welcomed by the residents, with the exception of one.
A grisly murder shakes the small town and when all fingers point to Georgia's grandpa, she knows just what to do.
May 19, 2017
For complete review check out my blog at https://booksaplentybookreviews.blogs...
August 10, 2014
http://openbooksociety.com/article/il...
Also see JoAnne's review here---> http://openbooksociety.com/article/il...
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Jeanie
*Spoilers*
Leaving her career and ex-fiance in New York City due to the scandal at a bank where she worked meant going to live at her grandfather’s home in small-town Wenwood, New York. Wenwood wasn’t Georgia’s first choice of where to go; she loved the big city but needed an affordable place to live and re-group until she found a new place to call her work home. Grandy had missed her terribly and was glad she was home, but didn’t want her to know the true condition of his dine-in movie theater where she had worked as a teen.
Grandy was so proud of Georgia that he told everyone she was coming, and people knew who she was before she knew, or remembered, them. On a trip to the grocer’s, she met a new friend, Carrie, who managed the nearby antique store. Her visit with Carrie provided Georgia with a challenge for her hobby of working with stained glass – repair of a Tiffany-like lamp – as she learned stained glass work as stress-relief from her career.
A quick visit to the hardware store to look for an item provided her not only a few moments of hearing a loud quarrel between the store owner and another businessman, but focused some of the shop owner’s anger on her because of his bitter feelings against her grandfather. Only a couple days afterwards, the police were at the door to take Grandy to the station. Unfortunately, he was wanted for questioning in the murder of the hardware storekeeper and one of Grandy’s only enemies, Andy Edgers.
Carrie offered to take Georgia to the police station rather than explain the directions to her. As they went to Carrie’s car, Georgia met and fell in love with a tiny kitten who was abandoned in a beer box, and she refused to be separated from the sweet fuzzy bundle. At the station she learns incurs the wrath of the businessman she saw in the hardware store, Tony Himmel, who was in charge of construction on Wenwood’s new Marina. The Marina was to be built where the beloved but long out-of-business brick manufacturer had fallen into disrepair. Locals hoped to bring new, reviving customers through tourism into Wenwood.
As Georgia waits around the police station, she tries to think through what she heard about the murder and speculate on who the real murderer was, as she knew that her Grandy wasn’t that person. Georgia makes interesting new friends through the course of the investigation, including one lady who had been an adversary since high school days.
This first novel in the outstanding new Stained-Glass Mystery series delivers a fast-paced cozy mystery with an eclectic cast of characters in a charming hometown setting. Friendships forged are the undergirding of Wenwood, and those who are friends of Grandy’s are friends of Georgia’s before she ever sprang into town with her full head of Little Orphan Annie red curls. It is interesting, to me, to learn about stained glass, and the details given about her skilled repair of the lamp were just enough to whet my curiosity.
The mystery is very well-crafted. The central characters and the readers learn of updates on the murder at nearly the same time; neither could solve the murder or the reasons for subsequent plot twists until each clue is revealed – and to me, the solution was a complete surprise!
Each character is a fully-developed, three-dimensional person who will be remembered in the future novels. Some are a bit more interesting than others, yet overall, this sounds like a fun hometown to be from or to move to! I really enjoy both Georgia and Carrie – brave, loyal, and hard-working ladies but also fun-loving and open to new friendships. Georgia is marketing herself to find a new job, for which I have tremendous empathy. Her love and loyalty to Grandy is admirable, and her frustrated adoration of her tiny kitten is at times all too funny, unless one of my cats has provided a new scratch on me from an errant claw.
The setting is beautifully described without being tedious, right down to the details of the Wenwood bricks and brickworks.
I would highly recommend this novel to young adults and adults of all ages who enjoy cozy mysteries, and I hope this series enjoys a long run! It is a hit – as long as it isn’t a hit through the colorful stained glass!
*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review as part of their ongoing blog tour*
Also see JoAnne's review here---> http://openbooksociety.com/article/il...
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Jeanie
*Spoilers*
Leaving her career and ex-fiance in New York City due to the scandal at a bank where she worked meant going to live at her grandfather’s home in small-town Wenwood, New York. Wenwood wasn’t Georgia’s first choice of where to go; she loved the big city but needed an affordable place to live and re-group until she found a new place to call her work home. Grandy had missed her terribly and was glad she was home, but didn’t want her to know the true condition of his dine-in movie theater where she had worked as a teen.
Grandy was so proud of Georgia that he told everyone she was coming, and people knew who she was before she knew, or remembered, them. On a trip to the grocer’s, she met a new friend, Carrie, who managed the nearby antique store. Her visit with Carrie provided Georgia with a challenge for her hobby of working with stained glass – repair of a Tiffany-like lamp – as she learned stained glass work as stress-relief from her career.
A quick visit to the hardware store to look for an item provided her not only a few moments of hearing a loud quarrel between the store owner and another businessman, but focused some of the shop owner’s anger on her because of his bitter feelings against her grandfather. Only a couple days afterwards, the police were at the door to take Grandy to the station. Unfortunately, he was wanted for questioning in the murder of the hardware storekeeper and one of Grandy’s only enemies, Andy Edgers.
Carrie offered to take Georgia to the police station rather than explain the directions to her. As they went to Carrie’s car, Georgia met and fell in love with a tiny kitten who was abandoned in a beer box, and she refused to be separated from the sweet fuzzy bundle. At the station she learns incurs the wrath of the businessman she saw in the hardware store, Tony Himmel, who was in charge of construction on Wenwood’s new Marina. The Marina was to be built where the beloved but long out-of-business brick manufacturer had fallen into disrepair. Locals hoped to bring new, reviving customers through tourism into Wenwood.
As Georgia waits around the police station, she tries to think through what she heard about the murder and speculate on who the real murderer was, as she knew that her Grandy wasn’t that person. Georgia makes interesting new friends through the course of the investigation, including one lady who had been an adversary since high school days.
This first novel in the outstanding new Stained-Glass Mystery series delivers a fast-paced cozy mystery with an eclectic cast of characters in a charming hometown setting. Friendships forged are the undergirding of Wenwood, and those who are friends of Grandy’s are friends of Georgia’s before she ever sprang into town with her full head of Little Orphan Annie red curls. It is interesting, to me, to learn about stained glass, and the details given about her skilled repair of the lamp were just enough to whet my curiosity.
The mystery is very well-crafted. The central characters and the readers learn of updates on the murder at nearly the same time; neither could solve the murder or the reasons for subsequent plot twists until each clue is revealed – and to me, the solution was a complete surprise!
Each character is a fully-developed, three-dimensional person who will be remembered in the future novels. Some are a bit more interesting than others, yet overall, this sounds like a fun hometown to be from or to move to! I really enjoy both Georgia and Carrie – brave, loyal, and hard-working ladies but also fun-loving and open to new friendships. Georgia is marketing herself to find a new job, for which I have tremendous empathy. Her love and loyalty to Grandy is admirable, and her frustrated adoration of her tiny kitten is at times all too funny, unless one of my cats has provided a new scratch on me from an errant claw.
The setting is beautifully described without being tedious, right down to the details of the Wenwood bricks and brickworks.
I would highly recommend this novel to young adults and adults of all ages who enjoy cozy mysteries, and I hope this series enjoys a long run! It is a hit – as long as it isn’t a hit through the colorful stained glass!
*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review as part of their ongoing blog tour*
July 17, 2014
Review from Backchatting Books
Georgia Kelly lost her accountancy job and her fiancé in quick succession. She came back to Wenwood, NY to stay with her grandfather (aka Grandy) to recuperate. When a man who was rude to her was murdered, Grandy became the prime suspect. Georgia is determined to clear him.
I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn’t connect with the main character, setting or the plot. There were several things that broke verisimilitude for me which was a shame.
Issues I personally had:
- No one in the town is genuinely nice apart from the kitten. Every one in the town is rude to Georgia, suspicious about her motives or has a hidden agenda. I realise that McAndrews was probably trying to mess with the charmingly quirky secondary characters trope which often pops up in cozies but when even the new bestie Carrie and the grandfather are users, it is a little much.
- The glass work wasn’t integrated into the plot and served no real purpose. This is a bit sad given the book is marketed as a Stained Glass Mystery.
- A suspect voluntarily gives Georgia, someone he barely knows and has been abrasive to, important information relating to the victim that he has withheld from the cops. Why? Georgia wanted to clear her grandfather and the suspect had no way of knowing she wouldn’t use this evidence to pin the crime on them.
- The police acted in a pretty incompetent and amateur fashion. This might have been a deliberate decision to make Georgia look clever but it bordered on the ridiculous towards the end.
- Georgia’s investigative techniques need a lot of refining.
I don’t want to leave you with the impression that this was a horrible book because it wasn’t. It was just one that didn’t quite work for me.
Georgia Kelly lost her accountancy job and her fiancé in quick succession. She came back to Wenwood, NY to stay with her grandfather (aka Grandy) to recuperate. When a man who was rude to her was murdered, Grandy became the prime suspect. Georgia is determined to clear him.
I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn’t connect with the main character, setting or the plot. There were several things that broke verisimilitude for me which was a shame.
Issues I personally had:
- No one in the town is genuinely nice apart from the kitten. Every one in the town is rude to Georgia, suspicious about her motives or has a hidden agenda. I realise that McAndrews was probably trying to mess with the charmingly quirky secondary characters trope which often pops up in cozies but when even the new bestie Carrie and the grandfather are users, it is a little much.
- The glass work wasn’t integrated into the plot and served no real purpose. This is a bit sad given the book is marketed as a Stained Glass Mystery.
- A suspect voluntarily gives Georgia, someone he barely knows and has been abrasive to, important information relating to the victim that he has withheld from the cops. Why? Georgia wanted to clear her grandfather and the suspect had no way of knowing she wouldn’t use this evidence to pin the crime on them.
- The police acted in a pretty incompetent and amateur fashion. This might have been a deliberate decision to make Georgia look clever but it bordered on the ridiculous towards the end.
- Georgia’s investigative techniques need a lot of refining.
I don’t want to leave you with the impression that this was a horrible book because it wasn’t. It was just one that didn’t quite work for me.
September 18, 2014
Author Jennifer McAndrews has the bare bones of what could turn into an excellent cozy series-- an appealing young heroine, an adorable kitten, a quirky best friend, and an eccentric grandfather. In a departure from the usual dream-come-true small town, McAndrews has created Wenwood. Wenwood was once a thriving town, but with the closure of its brick factory and the horrific national economic downturn, it's barely surviving. The series could receive quite a boost if Georgia and the other residents band together to save the town.
McAndrews has also written a fine mystery that kept me guessing, but then less positive things begin to rear their ugly heads. The "hook" of this series is that it's supposed to be one in which stained glass plays an important role. It certainly doesn't in Ill-Gotten Panes. The pitifully few scenes are certainly interesting, but you could also excise them from the book, and you'd never be able to pinpoint where they'd been. I will cut some slack for that because Georgia does say that everything in her life at that point must be put on hold until her grandfather is cleared of murder.
But speaking of her grandfather and the rest of the characters, most of them are so unlikeable that I really have no desire to pay a return visit to Wenwood. Her grandfather is a crotchety old cuss who drives his employees to distraction and is usually downright nasty to his granddaughter. Georgia's new best friend Carrie takes a shine to her for no reason at all-- Georgia's charm isn't exactly in evidence when they meet-- then hits our heroine up for a favor and gets contrary about the kitten Georgia's become attached to.
In addition it would appear that the economic blight in Wenwood has turned everyone into rumor-mongering grumps. Georgia's turned out of more than one business just because her grandfather has been accused of murder. Even the hunky contractor who's trying to turn the old brick factory into a marina to save the town has his anti-social moments.
Combine a hook that goes nowhere with a passel of unlikeable characters, and you have the beginning of a series with which I'm not quite sure I want to continue... even though there is true promise in those pages.
McAndrews has also written a fine mystery that kept me guessing, but then less positive things begin to rear their ugly heads. The "hook" of this series is that it's supposed to be one in which stained glass plays an important role. It certainly doesn't in Ill-Gotten Panes. The pitifully few scenes are certainly interesting, but you could also excise them from the book, and you'd never be able to pinpoint where they'd been. I will cut some slack for that because Georgia does say that everything in her life at that point must be put on hold until her grandfather is cleared of murder.
But speaking of her grandfather and the rest of the characters, most of them are so unlikeable that I really have no desire to pay a return visit to Wenwood. Her grandfather is a crotchety old cuss who drives his employees to distraction and is usually downright nasty to his granddaughter. Georgia's new best friend Carrie takes a shine to her for no reason at all-- Georgia's charm isn't exactly in evidence when they meet-- then hits our heroine up for a favor and gets contrary about the kitten Georgia's become attached to.
In addition it would appear that the economic blight in Wenwood has turned everyone into rumor-mongering grumps. Georgia's turned out of more than one business just because her grandfather has been accused of murder. Even the hunky contractor who's trying to turn the old brick factory into a marina to save the town has his anti-social moments.
Combine a hook that goes nowhere with a passel of unlikeable characters, and you have the beginning of a series with which I'm not quite sure I want to continue... even though there is true promise in those pages.
July 8, 2014
ILL-GOTTEN PANES is a promising start to a new cozy mystery series set in the tumble-down village of Wenwood, New York. After a huge work scandal and getting dumped by her boyfriend, accountant Georgia Kelly retreats to her grandfather’s house in Wenwood to decide on her next move.
When she gets to Wenwood, Georgia sees that the once booming town has fallen on hard times, and for some reason, the locals give her a chilly reception. There’s a big controversy over the construction of a new marina that is meant to revitalize Wenwood. Things get worse when one of the opponents is murdered, and Georgia’s grandfather ends up the prime suspect.
I really enjoyed the mystery in this book. It was fast-paced and well-plotted, and I liked how certain things that didn’t seem consequential ended up helping to solve the case. On the other hand, I didn’t love the characters and setting quite like I’d hoped. The town had a negative, unfriendly vibe – not a place I’d want to live.
Georgia was a determined amateur sleuth, though her personality fell flat at times. Like the town, she was also in a bad way having been dumped by her fiance and canned from her job. I was very intrigued by her stained glass hobby though. Before reading this book, I didn’t know much about it.
I’m curious to see if Wenwood can be transformed and if Georgia’s character blossoms in future books. There’s also a cute, fuzzball kitten the pet cozy mystery lovers will be crazy over. 3½-Stars.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
When she gets to Wenwood, Georgia sees that the once booming town has fallen on hard times, and for some reason, the locals give her a chilly reception. There’s a big controversy over the construction of a new marina that is meant to revitalize Wenwood. Things get worse when one of the opponents is murdered, and Georgia’s grandfather ends up the prime suspect.
I really enjoyed the mystery in this book. It was fast-paced and well-plotted, and I liked how certain things that didn’t seem consequential ended up helping to solve the case. On the other hand, I didn’t love the characters and setting quite like I’d hoped. The town had a negative, unfriendly vibe – not a place I’d want to live.
Georgia was a determined amateur sleuth, though her personality fell flat at times. Like the town, she was also in a bad way having been dumped by her fiance and canned from her job. I was very intrigued by her stained glass hobby though. Before reading this book, I didn’t know much about it.
I’m curious to see if Wenwood can be transformed and if Georgia’s character blossoms in future books. There’s also a cute, fuzzball kitten the pet cozy mystery lovers will be crazy over. 3½-Stars.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
July 29, 2014
Good, first book in a cozy series. The main character, Georgia, has an interesting hobby of working with beautiful stained glass. After losing her job, she moves to a small town in New York to live with her grandpa, Pete. She figures she'll help him run his old restaurant/theatre business. The town appears divided over the need for new growth to expand tourism and bring in more money. Georgia finds more than just broken glass to piece back together. There's a suspicious murder; her Grandy is questioned and later arrested; she doesn't understand his stubbornness; nor does she understand the vengeful undercurrents she senses in some of the towns citizens. Once she figures it all out, though, she'll find the killer. Loved the levity the kitten brought to the story!
July 28, 2014
This book is an odd mix for me, I like the stained glass part although I wish there had been a little more about it. The town is old and run down and needs a jumpstart, which is different from other cozies, and you start rooting for something to come in and boost the economy. The main character Georgia is likeable enough although I couldn't totally get into her, sometimes I just couldn't get her thought process, that's just my opinion. I did love her friend Carrie, she seemed like the one ray of sunshine in this town, most people seemed grumpy. I also loved Grace and Tom, a waitress and loyal customer, they were also pleasant characters. The other characters I think just need a little more development which I hope continues in the next book. I will read the next to see.
October 17, 2014
Since I don't normally write reviews unless I have something specific to say, here's the break down of how I rate my books...
1 star... This book was bad, so bad I may have given up and skipped to the end. I will avoid this author like the plague in the future.
2 stars... This book was not very good, and I won't be reading any more from the author.
3 stars... This book was ok, but I won't go out of my way to read more, But if I find another book by the author for under a dollar I'd pick it up.
4 stars... I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be on the look out to pick up more from the series/author.
5 stars... I loved this book! It had earned a permanent home in my collection and I'll be picking up the rest of the series and other books from the author ASAP.
April 8, 2015
3.5 stars. A good start to a new series. I like that the stained glass hobby wasn't used to wrap the mystery around - it might be in future, but this plot stood on its own. Grandpa was over-the-top grumpy even given the circumstances and his attitude about Friday the kitten means I don't like him and I'm not likely to. Still, looking forward to reading the next one.
Full review: http://jenn.booklikes.com/post/114183...
Full review: http://jenn.booklikes.com/post/114183...
July 26, 2014
This is the first book in the new stained-glass mystery series by Jennifer McAndrews. Georgia Kelly leaves the big city after a break-up with her fiance, and heads for her Grandpa's house in small town Wenwood. Georgia thinks that she'll be able to lick her wounds and put her life back together. Ha!!
A store owner is found dead and her Grandpa is at the top of the suspect list. Georgia must forget her own problems and focus on proving her Grandpa innocent.
A pretty good cozy. :)
A store owner is found dead and her Grandpa is at the top of the suspect list. Georgia must forget her own problems and focus on proving her Grandpa innocent.
A pretty good cozy. :)
August 14, 2014
The old adage "bad things came in threes" proves true for our heroine, as Georgia loses her job at an investment banking firm in the midst of a scandal, then finds her fiance is both ending their engagement and asking her to move out of their shared apartment. With both finances and time of concern for finding new housing, Georgia chooses to leave New York City and follow the time honored tradition in her family to go back to the beginning. As her mother is off in Italy on her honeymoon with husband #5, this means going to live with her grandfather in the small New York town of Wenwood.
Georgia's barely settled in at her grandfather's when the local hardware store owner orders her out of his store because "Pete Keene's granddaughter isn't welcome here!" Later, she tells her grandfather about the incident and he seems angry that she was treated poorly yet refuses to discuss what the issue between him and the store owner was about.
Shortly afterward, the same local store owner is found dead.
It looks like Georgia won't have the time to renew and recover - there's a murderer on the loose in Wenwood, and the police have her grandfather as the most likely 'person of interest'.
As the main character of the book, I wasn't fond of Georgia.
My trouble in really connecting with Georgia is because she lacks any real defining traits. She is alternately wimpy, sarcastic, needy, timid, brave, spineless and devious. I'll attribute part of her strange personality variations to the devastating blows of losing her job, her engagement & their friends, and her home the city she loved all at once. I'm sure such losses coming so closely together can really wreck anyone's self esteem. Still, it would be hard for me to pick three personality traits that consistently define her.
Georgia suffers from a serious lack of self confidence. In her thoughts, she constantly belittles herself. She sometimes temporarily overcomes her insecurity with sarcasm, but more often she simply caves in.
Despite her wimpiness in letting herself be pushed around by an employee at her gramp's business (who one might imagine she was well within her grounds to fire, as she was running the place when he was in jail), Georgia became strong when it came to defending her grandfather & the homeless kitten she rescued. Georgia wavered inside about her Grandy's innocence in the murder, and she did not have answers to some troubling questions presented - but if he wouldn't answer her, she was determined to find the answers for herself.
I hope in the next book Georgia comes forward as a character who is getting back on her feet and learning to stand on her own; with a distinct personality and more self confidence.
Georgia's grandfather is known as Pete to the townsfolk, but to her he's just her "Grandy". Don't let her endearing nickname fool you, Pete's abrasive personality goes beyond 'curmudgeonly old man'. He has some friends but more enemies, and he's even quite gruff with his own granddaughter.
Atypical for a person accused of murder, Grandy is reluctant to answer any questions to anyone but the police and his lawyer, leaving his granddaughter loyally defending him but secretly unsure of the many unanswered points the police have brought up. His refusal to simply come out and say "It wasn't me, I didn't do it." makes him look all the guiltier. I was disappointed this strange bit of behavior was never explained in the end. I was hoping perhaps there was a reason for his secrecy, but in the end he's just a crabby old man.
Grandy did have a strong, well defined personality - but it was mostly an unpleasant one. Frankly, I'm relieved he was in jail for a good part of the book as I didn't enjoy scenes with him and I didn't feel there was much he added to the story.
Carrie is a Wenwood native running her grandmother's antique store, who through the course of the story becomes Georgia's close friend.
Carrie sees Georgia walking past on the street and waves her into the store. Carrie has been told Georgia works with stained-glass, and is hoping she may be able to repair a broken tiffany style lamp her antique store has obtained.
Carrie agrees to help Georgia with information on the local community in exchange for her repairing a broken stained glass lamp for Carrie's antique store.
Diana was a friendly rival of Georgia from high school, but she really did not play a significant role until late in the book. Diana is a very interesting and well described character, and I look forward to seeing more of her in upcoming books.
Grace from the town diner has a good eye for traffic on the main drag and has her ear softly bent to customer conversations. He regular customer Tom is confused a bit, but he sometimes remembers interesting things.
This book does not delve into romance beyond Georgia's notice of a few attractive and eligible local men. As it's so soon after the ending of her engagement, that's to be expected. Georgia has a few potential love interests, but so far nothing has developed from any of them.
Overall, I found most of the secondary characters to be three dimensional and well developed, and their personalities distinct enough be recalled from one novel to the next.
The police tried to present themselves as being competent, but failed in my eyes.
Being one of three potential people last seen with the murder victim then finding what may be the murder weapon behind the business of someone after an anonymous tip tells the police where to look for it seems far too circumstantial a reason to arrest and formally charge a suspect with murder. I felt there needed to be more of a concrete reason for the arrest.
Also, 60k bail for a MURDER charge seems almost obscenely low. Perhaps it was so low based on both the economic depression of the area combined with the fact that the accused is both a homeowner and a business owner? Still, for a murder charge that seemed like a very low amount for bail.
Georgia finds a young kitten abandoned and huddled in a discarded beer case. She rescues the kitten, and when no owner is found she adopts her.
Friday the kitten was given her name as she provides Georgia with that upbeat feeling you would get at the end of the workweek, not to mention giving her unconditional love and unlimited laughter.
As a kitten, Friday does not have any involvement in the sleuthing although this may change in upcoming stories as Friday grows up.
The mystery itself was good. There were enough red herrings to distract but not dissuade the amateur sleuth and enough people with various motives who could pass for suspects / potential murderers.
I figured out whodunnnit about halfway through the book. From there the challenge was finding a motive and getting the evidence.
I was intrigued by Georgia's hobby of working with stained glass. Sadly, despite the series title, the stained glass theme of the mystery was only a lightly touched on hobby in this book. It did not have a direct tie in to the murder or it's investigation beyond providing Georgia with a means to trade for information and establish a working relationship that grew into a friendship with Carrie. Some basic information on working with stained glass is given in descriptions of how Georgia selects the glass, cuts and replaces it into the broken lamp. However, it was not well integrated into the storyline and could have been replaced with any similar crafting hobby. I am hopeful in the next book that it may be more integral to both her character and they mystery investigations itself, as at the end of this book Georgia's stained-glass hobby becomes her profession.
The two main reasons the book fell flat for me was Georgia's lack of personality and the town itself being so dull and drab.
As an amateur sleuth, Georgia was more determined then skillful.
I liked that Georgia was good at investigating most possible avenues of information. However, Georgia was too trusting that what people were telling her was factual and honest.
When she asks one person if they were at a certain place and time, they strongly denied it. She slinks off, doubting the description she was given by the witness yet never considering the person she questioned may have been lying to her.
A scene that bothered me was where a potential suspect divulges relevant information regarding the crime to Georgia, a person he barely knows and has been (wrongly) nasty to. This information is something he 'neglected' to share with the police when he was brought in for questioning. I can somewhat see that he may have felt guilty that he jumped to conclusions and wrongly blamed Georgia for something she did not do. I can even see that he may feel a something in common with her as they are both 'outsiders' in the town. However, this information could have been used by Georgia to discredit him in the eyes of the police and make him look like he was hiding something. Unlike Georgia, this gentleman seems to be all to aware of what is at stake here and it seemed out of character for him to suddenly get so trusting with her.
Usually, small towns in cozy mysteries are friendly, quaint places where a murder stands out as a horrible, almost unthinkable occurrence. In other books in the genre I've had reactions ranging from feeling I was in an average quaint small town to "wow, this place is great! How do I move there?"
Wenwood stands in a sharp contrast to what I would consider the average cozy setting. Wenwood is a town in severe economic distress, not yet letting go of the past but not yet ready to step into the future. It's a town where it straddles the past and future, yet has no grounding in the present.
Despite the economic crunch the town faces, Georgia is asked to leave not just one but two stores in town simply by virtue of who her grandfather is. It seems unbelievable and unrealistic, but the mindset of this town is hard to wrap yourself into.
Wenwood was built upon it's famed brickmaking industry, which is now closed down. Despite this, residents seemed to have an unreasonable amount of pride in their "Wenwood bricks". In many other stories, this bit of local color may have come across as history or nostalgia, but in Wenwood the attitude is carried to extremes which came across as pompous and grandiose.
It was as if the maker of old time horse drawn carriges would look upon a car with disdain, staring down their nose as they proclaimed how their made the best horse drawn carriages EVER! This unreasonably prideful attitude is shown by most local characters in town, to some degree or another.
There is a project going on which will turn the old brickmaking factory into a marina to bring tourism to the area. Local residents are strongly divided between seeing the need to expand into other avenues of commerce like tourism from the new marina project and others who cling to the 'way things were' and want to keep the town the way it is - even though Wenwood is economically stagnating. What others may see as opinions instead are the resident's deeply held beliefs, and the depth of their conviction to their outlook causes them to be suspicious and distrusting, and sometimes downright hostile to non residents.
The residents seem to have no idea that their 'local pride' come across as abraisive to non residents. While some of this can be attributed to the murderer subtily stirring up dissention between the two factions, it will remain to be seen if the town as a whole can mellow out this attitude to be welcoming of the tourists and they money they will bring. No tourist is going to want to return to a town where they are treated like they should spend their money and leave, and I am not yet convinced that this town can successfully transition it's attitude to be welcoming of others.
As it is presented in this book, I certainly would not want to live in Wenwood. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd even want to visit there.
I also felt in many places I wasn't drawn into the story - instead, I was out of the story and into my own head trying to figure out the point to including a scene that seemed out of place or out of character. I was disappointed because I feel that I should engaging my brain by figuring out the mystery - not what the author was thinking.
I have not read this author before reading this book. Although parts of this story fell flat for me, there were parts that I found interesting as well. I feel this was a good first book for the series, and the series itself holds potential.
As stained glass has become Georgia's profession, I look forward to it playing a larger role in future books. With the marina being built and the murder behind bars, it will be interesting to see if book two in the series will bring about a more welcoming attitude in Wenwood and a more defined personality from Georgia. I can't wait to see what Friday gets into next as she grown up!
With the initial set up of the characters and the town established, I look forward to book 2 in the series.
Georgia's barely settled in at her grandfather's when the local hardware store owner orders her out of his store because "Pete Keene's granddaughter isn't welcome here!" Later, she tells her grandfather about the incident and he seems angry that she was treated poorly yet refuses to discuss what the issue between him and the store owner was about.
Shortly afterward, the same local store owner is found dead.
It looks like Georgia won't have the time to renew and recover - there's a murderer on the loose in Wenwood, and the police have her grandfather as the most likely 'person of interest'.
As the main character of the book, I wasn't fond of Georgia.
My trouble in really connecting with Georgia is because she lacks any real defining traits. She is alternately wimpy, sarcastic, needy, timid, brave, spineless and devious. I'll attribute part of her strange personality variations to the devastating blows of losing her job, her engagement & their friends, and her home the city she loved all at once. I'm sure such losses coming so closely together can really wreck anyone's self esteem. Still, it would be hard for me to pick three personality traits that consistently define her.
Georgia suffers from a serious lack of self confidence. In her thoughts, she constantly belittles herself. She sometimes temporarily overcomes her insecurity with sarcasm, but more often she simply caves in.
Despite her wimpiness in letting herself be pushed around by an employee at her gramp's business (who one might imagine she was well within her grounds to fire, as she was running the place when he was in jail), Georgia became strong when it came to defending her grandfather & the homeless kitten she rescued. Georgia wavered inside about her Grandy's innocence in the murder, and she did not have answers to some troubling questions presented - but if he wouldn't answer her, she was determined to find the answers for herself.
I hope in the next book Georgia comes forward as a character who is getting back on her feet and learning to stand on her own; with a distinct personality and more self confidence.
Georgia's grandfather is known as Pete to the townsfolk, but to her he's just her "Grandy". Don't let her endearing nickname fool you, Pete's abrasive personality goes beyond 'curmudgeonly old man'. He has some friends but more enemies, and he's even quite gruff with his own granddaughter.
Atypical for a person accused of murder, Grandy is reluctant to answer any questions to anyone but the police and his lawyer, leaving his granddaughter loyally defending him but secretly unsure of the many unanswered points the police have brought up. His refusal to simply come out and say "It wasn't me, I didn't do it." makes him look all the guiltier. I was disappointed this strange bit of behavior was never explained in the end. I was hoping perhaps there was a reason for his secrecy, but in the end he's just a crabby old man.
Grandy did have a strong, well defined personality - but it was mostly an unpleasant one. Frankly, I'm relieved he was in jail for a good part of the book as I didn't enjoy scenes with him and I didn't feel there was much he added to the story.
Carrie is a Wenwood native running her grandmother's antique store, who through the course of the story becomes Georgia's close friend.
Carrie sees Georgia walking past on the street and waves her into the store. Carrie has been told Georgia works with stained-glass, and is hoping she may be able to repair a broken tiffany style lamp her antique store has obtained.
Carrie agrees to help Georgia with information on the local community in exchange for her repairing a broken stained glass lamp for Carrie's antique store.
Diana was a friendly rival of Georgia from high school, but she really did not play a significant role until late in the book. Diana is a very interesting and well described character, and I look forward to seeing more of her in upcoming books.
Grace from the town diner has a good eye for traffic on the main drag and has her ear softly bent to customer conversations. He regular customer Tom is confused a bit, but he sometimes remembers interesting things.
This book does not delve into romance beyond Georgia's notice of a few attractive and eligible local men. As it's so soon after the ending of her engagement, that's to be expected. Georgia has a few potential love interests, but so far nothing has developed from any of them.
Overall, I found most of the secondary characters to be three dimensional and well developed, and their personalities distinct enough be recalled from one novel to the next.
The police tried to present themselves as being competent, but failed in my eyes.
Being one of three potential people last seen with the murder victim then finding what may be the murder weapon behind the business of someone after an anonymous tip tells the police where to look for it seems far too circumstantial a reason to arrest and formally charge a suspect with murder. I felt there needed to be more of a concrete reason for the arrest.
Also, 60k bail for a MURDER charge seems almost obscenely low. Perhaps it was so low based on both the economic depression of the area combined with the fact that the accused is both a homeowner and a business owner? Still, for a murder charge that seemed like a very low amount for bail.
Georgia finds a young kitten abandoned and huddled in a discarded beer case. She rescues the kitten, and when no owner is found she adopts her.
Friday the kitten was given her name as she provides Georgia with that upbeat feeling you would get at the end of the workweek, not to mention giving her unconditional love and unlimited laughter.
At the office supply store, I made fifty copies of my “Found: White Kitten” flyers and picked up a roll of tape. The problem, I realized as I set the flyers and tape in the car, was that a tiny voice in the back of my mind had already named the kitten Friday, because her soft cuddles soothed my tension the same way as a Friday afternoon of a stressful workweek.
As a kitten, Friday does not have any involvement in the sleuthing although this may change in upcoming stories as Friday grows up.
The mystery itself was good. There were enough red herrings to distract but not dissuade the amateur sleuth and enough people with various motives who could pass for suspects / potential murderers.
I figured out whodunnnit about halfway through the book. From there the challenge was finding a motive and getting the evidence.
I was intrigued by Georgia's hobby of working with stained glass. Sadly, despite the series title, the stained glass theme of the mystery was only a lightly touched on hobby in this book. It did not have a direct tie in to the murder or it's investigation beyond providing Georgia with a means to trade for information and establish a working relationship that grew into a friendship with Carrie. Some basic information on working with stained glass is given in descriptions of how Georgia selects the glass, cuts and replaces it into the broken lamp. However, it was not well integrated into the storyline and could have been replaced with any similar crafting hobby. I am hopeful in the next book that it may be more integral to both her character and they mystery investigations itself, as at the end of this book Georgia's stained-glass hobby becomes her profession.
The two main reasons the book fell flat for me was Georgia's lack of personality and the town itself being so dull and drab.
As an amateur sleuth, Georgia was more determined then skillful.
I liked that Georgia was good at investigating most possible avenues of information. However, Georgia was too trusting that what people were telling her was factual and honest.
When she asks one person if they were at a certain place and time, they strongly denied it. She slinks off, doubting the description she was given by the witness yet never considering the person she questioned may have been lying to her.
A scene that bothered me was where a potential suspect divulges relevant information regarding the crime to Georgia, a person he barely knows and has been (wrongly) nasty to. This information is something he 'neglected' to share with the police when he was brought in for questioning. I can somewhat see that he may have felt guilty that he jumped to conclusions and wrongly blamed Georgia for something she did not do. I can even see that he may feel a something in common with her as they are both 'outsiders' in the town. However, this information could have been used by Georgia to discredit him in the eyes of the police and make him look like he was hiding something. Unlike Georgia, this gentleman seems to be all to aware of what is at stake here and it seemed out of character for him to suddenly get so trusting with her.
Usually, small towns in cozy mysteries are friendly, quaint places where a murder stands out as a horrible, almost unthinkable occurrence. In other books in the genre I've had reactions ranging from feeling I was in an average quaint small town to "wow, this place is great! How do I move there?"
Wenwood stands in a sharp contrast to what I would consider the average cozy setting. Wenwood is a town in severe economic distress, not yet letting go of the past but not yet ready to step into the future. It's a town where it straddles the past and future, yet has no grounding in the present.
Despite the economic crunch the town faces, Georgia is asked to leave not just one but two stores in town simply by virtue of who her grandfather is. It seems unbelievable and unrealistic, but the mindset of this town is hard to wrap yourself into.
Wenwood was built upon it's famed brickmaking industry, which is now closed down. Despite this, residents seemed to have an unreasonable amount of pride in their "Wenwood bricks". In many other stories, this bit of local color may have come across as history or nostalgia, but in Wenwood the attitude is carried to extremes which came across as pompous and grandiose.
It was as if the maker of old time horse drawn carriges would look upon a car with disdain, staring down their nose as they proclaimed how their made the best horse drawn carriages EVER! This unreasonably prideful attitude is shown by most local characters in town, to some degree or another.
There is a project going on which will turn the old brickmaking factory into a marina to bring tourism to the area. Local residents are strongly divided between seeing the need to expand into other avenues of commerce like tourism from the new marina project and others who cling to the 'way things were' and want to keep the town the way it is - even though Wenwood is economically stagnating. What others may see as opinions instead are the resident's deeply held beliefs, and the depth of their conviction to their outlook causes them to be suspicious and distrusting, and sometimes downright hostile to non residents.
“To understand Wenwood, you have to live here,” he ground out. “You have to be a part of it. You have to love it. Someone whose heart isn’t in this town can never understand.”
The residents seem to have no idea that their 'local pride' come across as abraisive to non residents. While some of this can be attributed to the murderer subtily stirring up dissention between the two factions, it will remain to be seen if the town as a whole can mellow out this attitude to be welcoming of the tourists and they money they will bring. No tourist is going to want to return to a town where they are treated like they should spend their money and leave, and I am not yet convinced that this town can successfully transition it's attitude to be welcoming of others.
As it is presented in this book, I certainly would not want to live in Wenwood. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd even want to visit there.
I also felt in many places I wasn't drawn into the story - instead, I was out of the story and into my own head trying to figure out the point to including a scene that seemed out of place or out of character. I was disappointed because I feel that I should engaging my brain by figuring out the mystery - not what the author was thinking.
I have not read this author before reading this book. Although parts of this story fell flat for me, there were parts that I found interesting as well. I feel this was a good first book for the series, and the series itself holds potential.
As stained glass has become Georgia's profession, I look forward to it playing a larger role in future books. With the marina being built and the murder behind bars, it will be interesting to see if book two in the series will bring about a more welcoming attitude in Wenwood and a more defined personality from Georgia. I can't wait to see what Friday gets into next as she grown up!
With the initial set up of the characters and the town established, I look forward to book 2 in the series.
July 3, 2017
I enjoyed this book but the connections between scenes were not fluid. There were times I had to flip back to see if I had missed a paragraph or a page. Or three. Thoughts and scenes were disconnected or not finished. There were times when Georgia made of point of doing something, then when she went back and the thing she made a point of doing was no longer done, there was no mention of it being undone. There were multiple instances of uncrossing arms when the arms were never recrossed. Also, all the different plot points, side stories, and snippy comments by other characters were not completed or explained. Which is out of character given the emphasis by Georgia on these items initially.
Basically, it needed at least one more read through by an editor to hammer out the inconsistencies and dropped thoughts.
Basically, it needed at least one more read through by an editor to hammer out the inconsistencies and dropped thoughts.
July 21, 2019
A cozy set around a stained-glass worker, Georgia, her home town in upstate New York along the Hudson River, and her relationship with her grandfather. Of course, it's her grandfather who is accused of murdering the hardware store owner and Georgia who know he hasn't. Now it's up to Georgia to prove who's guilty and "free" her grandfather.
There's not too much about stained-glass, but plenty about revitalizing towns, but that's okay because "Ill Gotten Panes" follows the traditional cozy trope and will delight readers everywhere.
There's not too much about stained-glass, but plenty about revitalizing towns, but that's okay because "Ill Gotten Panes" follows the traditional cozy trope and will delight readers everywhere.
June 5, 2017
A good beginning, a good mystery and a surprise murderer. I'll read the next one
July 18, 2017
Good, even if the main character is a little mousey. lol
January 20, 2018
Great cozy!! Loved It!!!!
May 3, 2018
First book in a new series and it was great. Can't wait to read the next book.
May 27, 2018
Well-plotted mystery & interesting characters that I'm looking forward to seeing more of!
July 15, 2019
An enjoyable read.
February 24, 2020
Fun character trying to reinvent herself while saving her grandfather from jail.
Read
April 5, 20223.5
May 19, 2022
Wonderful cozy with a stained glass window theme.
October 31, 2023
I am liking this series!
September 7, 2025
I read this quite a few years ago. it's was a good read but not one that I wanted to read again.
August 7, 2017
Greatly enjoyed this one. Good pacing, good characters, better than good editing (and not a single blasted "just then" in sight! Yes!).
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