Kari Lee Townsend – Tempest in the Tea Leaves

The first book in the Fortune Teller Mystery series, published August 2, 2011.
Genre: paranormal cozy mystery
Cover: beautiful, I love it.



Leaving the Big Apple for the quaint town of Divinity, New York, Sunny is determined to make it on her own as a psychic. With an ancient Victorian house as her place of business, Sunny uses various psychic methods to aid the town’s residents. But when she uses tea leaves to give a reading for a frazzled librarian, what she finds at the bottom of the cup is anything but helpful.
Sunny informs the police of her deadly vision, but her warning is too late. And with hard-nosed, ruggedly handsome Detective Mitch Stone denying her abilities and naming her prime suspect, the situation is dire. Now Sunny has to use her visions to clear her name, before the killer can put an end to the psychic’s future…


At age 29, Sunny Meadows is more than ready to leave her parents, who see her as nothing more than a disappointment. Her father is a successful surgeon, and her mother a successful attorney, a killer in a courtroom. And Sunny is a psychic, something neither parent wants to believe in. The first thing Sunny did when she was 18, was legally change her first name from the hated Sylvia into Sunshine, which fits her much better.
And so Sunny sets out in her old VW Bug to the small town of Divinity, and the gorgeous Victorian mansion she bought for herself. As it is thought of as haunted, she got it cheap, no one having lived there for decades. And it comes fully furnished with lovely Victorian furniture. And a spooky white cat with big black eyes. At first Sunny is scared, as the cat is acting kind of strange, but Morty soon grows on her, and she decides to keep him or rather let him keep her, as he apparently was already living in the house.

Sunny enjoys making the house liveable, and especially the room she has designated for her readings, her little sanctuary. And then late one afternoon her first client arrives: Amanda Robbins, the town’s librarian. She is horribly upset, and asks Sunny to read her future to her. But Sunny cannot allay her fears; instead, she sees Amanda’s death is imminent. Someone she knows very well will kill her. Amanda doesn’t want to believe her, and leaves, making Sunny wonder what to do next. An hour later she finally calls the police to tell what she saw, but it is too late. Amanda has been found death in her bedroom. And Sunny becomes the main suspect. She was the last one to have seen Amanda alive, and as there is no such thing as a psychic, how else would she have known of the murder? Especially when it were the tea leaves she gave Amanda that were found soaked in the poison used?

But as the evidence is only circumstantial, Detective Mitchell Stone will have to release her. And Sunny is determined to clear her name. This will for sure kill off her fledgling business. Who would want their future told when all she sees is murder?
And so she sets out to find out what happened, only to butt heads with the handsome detective time and again, which is only getting worse when the powers that be decree for them to work together. Mitch for sure is not happy with that, and she totally hates him for calling her parents, making them race over to “help” her out of her predicament. Still, investigating is a great way to get around town and meeting the locals.


I really enjoyed Sunny, and the stuff she got herself into. She has a big heart, and wants to help whenever she can. She doesn’t really thing things through first, making it necessary for Mitch to safe her, but she is fun and I would love to hang out with her.
And then there is the handsome Detective. He was burned badly by love before, so he is really careful now. And when Sunny reads his tealeaves, seeing that he will break her heart, he doesn’t want to believe her. She is so not his type! But Sunny’s talent is real, and he will find out for himself. Morty doesn’t like him though, and finds it very funny to scare him, making for some fun scenes.
I have to admit, I don’t like her parents. Too sure of themselves, and thinking Sunny without aim, not believing in her, nor standing behind her. She needs to come home and get a real job, a purpose in life. Hello’s she is 29, she doesn’t need you to tell her what to do, and decide how to live her life.

I did enjoy the friends she makes, and would for sure love to meet that gorgeous Irish barkeeper. Or the heartbroken singer. I am really looking forward to reading the next book, and find out more about this town and its inhabitants. Kari Lee Townsend has written a great new cozy mystery series, and I loved it very much. I did not figure out who the killer was at all, never even suspected him. Which is always a good thing as I like to be surprised by the plot. The humor is just my kind of thing, and the cat stole some great scenes. I just wanted the book to go on for a hundred pages more or so.

8 stars

© 2012 Reviews by Aurian