Customer Reviews

At Wick's End (Candlemaking Mysteries, No. 1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Harrison Black is upset to hear about the death of his Great Aunt Belle in an accident at her shop, At Wick's End. He's not too surprised when she leaves everything to him, since they are the only relatives they have left. The will includes the stipulation that he must keep the store open for at least five years and not sell it or River's Edge, the building the shop is in which he now also owns.

Since Harrison was at a dead end in his life, he moves the few miles to his new business. He's greeted his first morning there by a break-in at his great aunt's apartment on the premises. Since the place had obviously been searched, he begins to suspect that Belle's death may have been more then an accident and is determined to find out what really happened to her. Thinking it might be one of his new tenants, he becomes paranoid that their offers for help are really offers to search again. Add to that a new business he knows nothing about and an employee at the store who he seems to upset regularly and he has his work cut out for him.

I really did enjoy this new series debut. Harrison and his new friends are interesting and believable characters. I especially appreciated Harrison's habit of putting his foot in his mouth on a regular basis, something I tend to do myself. This book puts us in an interesting position. The prologue actually starts with Belle's death, so we know the what and the why, but not the who. As a result, we spend parts of the book waiting for Harrison to figure out what we know and I figured out one major plot point long before Harrison did. Still, the characters were interesting enough to keep me entertained, and the ending was completely believable, both who the killer was and how Harrison figured it out.

The characters in this new series debut already feel like friends already. I can't wait to see them again. I haven't read this author in a couple years, but I'm going to have to go back and read his other series as well.

"At Wick's End" is Tim Myers' first book in his candlemaking series and I had ordered it expecting a light, fluffy read. I was not familiar with his work, but thought that I might learn a little about candles and enjoy a pleasant mystery as well.

I thoroughly and completely enjoyed this book! And while, yes, I did learn a lot about candlemaking (at least enough to want to make me want to try the craft), I was absolutely enchanted with the characters that Tim Myers has brought to life!

This introductory mystery details the life of Harrison Black who has unexpectedly inherited his Great Aunt's estate. Although the bank owns most of it, this estate includes River's Edge - a shopping mall of sorts, that houses eccentric tenants as well as his Great Aunt's candle shop, "At Wick's End" and an apartment to boot.

Retiring quickly from his less than thriving job of selling junk computers, Harrison moves into the apartment. He soon comes to believe that his aunt's death was not an accident. Simultaneously, while immersing himself in learning how to run a candle shop, Harrison attempts to solve his Great Aunt's murder.

What captured me so thoroughly was not only the great plot and the long list of "suspects," but Tim Myers' accurate and very realistic portrayal of the problems that confront someone who has suddenly become the owner of a store.

"At Wick's End" is such a terrific book that I can't wait to read the sequel, "Burning at Both Ends." Great job by a fine writer!

Harrison Black has inherited his Aunt Belle's candle shop - and the small mall in which it is located, River's Edge. He moves into her former apartment on premises and learns her trade, meets her friends, and uncovers her secrets. But someone has some secrets to hide - like Aunt Belle's fatal accident. The writer has created an interesting world with likeable - and not-so-likeable - characters. Snuffed Out is next in the series, followed by Death Waxed Over. Pleasant reads, I think, and a mall I'd like to visit!

I enjoyed this book - the characters were developed well, and that made me care about them. The details show that the author actually does know something about making candles, too. I'm looking forward to the next one in the series. Not a terribly long book, but that's ok - sometimes I get tired of reading by the pound!

This is truly a charming cozy mystery which draws the reader right through the door and into the candle-making shop, where all sorts of things come to pass. I particularly enjoyed the young man Harrison Black who is the main character. He's not exactly bumbling, but not always overly swift, either. However, once he gets his feet on the ground in his new surroundings, he does begin to better process and understand the events swirling around him.

An orphan, Harrison was mostly raised by his Great-Aunt Belle Black, who had purchased (with the help of the local bank) an old building on the bank of a river in North Carolina. She called it River's Edge, and peopled it with a variety of small shops and offices. In addition to her candle-making shop At Wick's End, she made an apartment for herself on the second floor. When she is found dead in the shop, Harrison inherits everything.

Although he has little of his own, he's not exactly sure that he wants to pick up and move to River's Edge. However, Aunt Belle has stipulated he must live there and try to make it work for five years, or else he loses everything. Harrison has bounced from job to job, has no particular love interest at the moment, so why not? And away he goes.

As he meets the various tenants, he begins to wonder about Belle's death. Was it the accident it looked like, or could it have been something else. After several strange things happen to him, Harrison becomes rather paranoid about his close neighbors. He patiently builds up a case against each of them, only to have it all dissolve into nothing. Finally, however, he guesses right and just happens to have a handy (and most unusual) weapon available at the right time.

The characters are all engaging, and will certainly prompt the reader into wanting to know more about them. The plot was more than sufficient to keep me turning the pages, and although I did occasionally get a twinge of `it was -`, turns out it wasn't, after all. I'm looking forward to the next venture at River's Edge.

I honestly thought this book read like a first novel, and not a particularly good one at that. I think I'll try reading one of the later ones in the series to see if the author's writing has improved, but I was not impressed with this one. It was good enough for me to read it (I'll quit reading really bad books) but it seemed rather amateurish to me.

This is the first book of a series. A woman who owns a candle shop dies at the beginning of the book -- murdered by someone who she was insisting go to the police. As it turns out, she also ownsd the building that the shop is in -- the building is a refurbished riverside industrial building with an apartment for the owner on the top floor -- and her grand-nephew inherits all, but only if he makes a 5-year serious effort to make a going concern of the business. He knows nothing about candlemaking but he's in a dead-end job and welcomes an alternative. He quickly suspects that his great-aunt's death was not an accident and decides one of the tenants in the building is probably the killer.

This is in the genre of "cozy" mysteries -- the reader can fantasize about living in this cozy community in a beautiful mountain location with a job that would sound ideal to many readers. I suspect that this is the appeal of this book. The mystery itself isn't very well written, and I was way ahead of the "detective" (the grand-nephew) for most of the book. If you like a well-plotted, suspenseful mystery, I think you may be disappointed. If you like "cozy", you may well like this book's coziness enough to forgive other weaknesses.

When Harrison Black unexpectedly inherits his great-aunt Belle's candle shop, he really has no idea what he's getting into. Harrison soon discovers that not only did his great-aunt leave him the candle shop "At Wick's End", she actually willed him the entire building containing the shop. On his first tour of the building though, Harrison discovers that his aunt's upstairs apartment has been ransacked. Harrison begins to suspect that his aunt's fall in the candle shop may not have been an accident.

As Harrison tries to determine who might have murdered Great-Aunt Belle, each tenant of the building becomes a suspect. The author does a great job with each of the characters, and the reader quickly feels like the other shopowners are old friends.

This is the first mystery in Tim Myers' candlemaking mystery, and I must say that I really enjoyed the candlemaking information woven into the story. I'm looking forward to the next volume in this series as much for the candlemaking instruction as for the mystery!

In the 1st book in the Candlemaking Mystery series, we meet Harrison Black, the new owner of At Wick's End, a candle shop in North Carolina. His great-aunt Belle has just died, and being her only relative, Harrison has inherited both the shop and the entire building in which it resides. He immediately quits his dead-end job as a computer salesman, and moves to the small town to start his new life. Unfortunately, Harrison knows nothing about candles, and has to rely on his aunt's employee and friend, Eve, to teach him as he works alongside her. He soon starts to realize that something is wrong when he discovers that Belle's apartment had been searched before he arrived, and he cannot shake the feeling that his great-aunt's death was not an accident. Harrison works hard to learn both the business and the inner-workings of the close knit community, and quickly figures out that one of his new acquaintances has a lot to hide...and would be willing to kill to keep hidden.

This was a fun, light start to an interesting cozy series and I really enjoyed the characters and the setting. Reading many books of the genre, I normally stick to female protagonists, but really enjoyed the character of Harrison in this book. It was also interesting to learn some aspects of the candlemaking business, and I liked the way that the ending went along with the overall theme. I am looking forward to reading more of these light, quick reads in this interesting series.

The next book in the series is called "Snuffed Out". Enjoy!

Tim Myers'AT WICKS END was a fun crafting mystery. I love the name Harrison Black because with one more name it was my grandmother's name. That kept me reading, but the characters who inhabited the old warehouse Harrison inherited from his aunt made the pages sparkle. The handyman Perly Grey was a perfect at this time when so many are choosing underemployment to no employment. A fun series.
Nash Black, author of Sandprints of Death.

This is such a fantastic start to a series.

For the start of this cozy mystery series, Harrison Black, finds out that his great aunt has an accident and was found dead. It was an accident , and everybody knows it. Harrison inherits his aunt's candle shop, At Wick's End, and it's his to run. As he thinks about his aunts death, he isn't so sure that it was an accident. Some breakins occur, and the local police can't be bothered with it. Soon, Harrison goes to far into the mystery of aunt's death, and the killer is now after Harrison.

This is such a wonderful read. As, far as cozy mysteries go, this far above the rest. Myers has a fantastic writing style that will keep you hooked to the very last page. Myers has the ability to have a 'down home feeling' in his writing. He has characters that you can't help but to like and want to get to know and spend time with. The characters feel like they're your best friends, and have plenty of charm.

There aren't to many plot twists, but a few red herrings that will hold your attention and keep you guessing.

If you like cozy mysteries, then you'll want to start this series. I can promise you won't be sorry, I know I wasn't and I can't wait to start the next one.