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With this debut, the Hungarian Tea House mystery series has jumped on my list of all-time favorites, and I’m very excited to see where it goes next. It is both absorbing and, in parts, genuinely spine-tingling. Buckley wove Hungarian legends and traditions into the narrative. The romance is both sweet and believably beset with obstacles, while the mouth-watering food descriptions had me looking up Hungarian restaurants in my vicinity. The mystery is solidly and cleverly constructed, with an unusual motive. I am wildly impressed with the way Julia Buckley incorporates so much into this culinary cozy. But as the investigations continue, Hana and Detective Erik Wolf find themselves increasingly drawn to one another, even as a murderer-or perhaps one of the evil witches of Hungarian legend-prepares to strike again. She shakes it off, intent on showcasing her prized Budapest Butterfly teacup at the event for the Magyar Women’s group, but disaster strikes when that very cup is used to poison one of the guests.Īt first, the detectives in charge rely on Hana, her mother, Maggie, and her tea-leaf-reading grandmother, Juliana, to help translate Hungarian-language testimony and explain cultural peculiarities. Proud as she is of her Magyar heritage, she doesn’t necessarily buy into all their superstitions-until a strong sense of foreboding before a tea service one day literally stops her in her tracks. Hana Keller is the third generation of her Hungarian-American family to run Maggie’s Tea House, the popular Illinois establishment that serves European-style teas.
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