Tempest in the Tea Leaves

In the fortune telling business there are a lot of pretenders, but Sunshine Meadows is the real deal—and her predictions can be lethally accurate... 
Sunny is a big city psychic who moves to the quaint town of Divinity, NY to open her fortune telling business in an ancient Victorian house, inheriting the strange cat residing within. Sunny gives her first reading to the frazzled town librarian and discovers the woman is going to die. When the woman flees in terror, Sunny calls the police, only she’s too late. The ruggedly handsome, hard-nosed detective is a “non-believer.” He finds the librarian dead, and Sunny becomes his number one suspect, forcing her to prove her innocence before the real killer can put an end to the psychic’s future.

Sunny, finally moves out of her parents home to a small town in New York state.  She buys a old Victorian home where she plans to live and open her business.  She's a fortune teller who specializes in tea leaf readings.  The old house comes with a mysterious cat and some say the odd ghost or two. During her first reading she "sees" the woman dead and warns her to be careful, she also calls the police to warn them of the possible crime. That's when Detective Mitch Stone comes in.  He's a no nonsense, by the book type and he thinks that Sunny is loopy. And definitely a person of interest.


I know that I've mentioned on how much I love books set in small towns because of the close knit community feel.  But this one, it just had way too much going on. I think the author might have jumped the gun on introducing so many characters in the first book.  It was hard to follow who was who, and whom they were connected to and how they were related in the story.  Obviously there were the comic relief characters, that made me smile, but it still felt very over crowded.  That being said, I did enjoy the story.  The premise of a fortune teller mystery series sounds fun and add the hunky non-believer detective and you have a possible love story within the series is a added bonus.  The who done it part was a surprise which I did not see coming, but it tied in nicely.  


Tempest in the Tea Leaves  by Kari Lee Townsend (3/5) Paranormal Mystery; Published: Berkley (8/2011); New Author; Series: # 1, Fortune Teller Mystery; Mystery Suspense Challenge 2012 (4); Library; Books 2012 (24)