Review ~ DEATH ON THE NIGHT OF LOST LIZARDS by Julia Buckley

Death on the Night of Lost Lizards (Hungarian Tea House, #3)
by: Julia Buckley
Series: Hungarian Tea House
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release Date: June 1, 2021
Publisher: Berkley
Amazon | Paperback | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo | Goodreads

Hana Keller and her tea-leaf reading grandmother are used to finding the perfect savory treats to pair with a delicious cuppa at her family’s tea house but when a local professor is killed, she uncovers a serving of suspects instead…

Hana Keller is getting ready for a lovely holiday season. She decides to host a tea at her apartment for her closest friends. During the cozy get-together, one of Hana's friends gets a call that a murderer is on the loose and that the women should be careful. Hana soon learns that Sandor Balog, a professor of Hungarian Studies at the local college, has been viciously killed.

Hana gets one of her visions that she is going to be pulled into the professor's death somehow. When Erik, her handsome detective boyfriend, finds several suspects at the Tea House, Hana knows she must now investigate. And when the wrong man is arrested, things come to a boil and Hana finds herself in the path of the real killer.

Death on the Night of Lost Lizards is the third book in Julia Buckley’s Hungarian Tea House Mystery series. The story can be read as a standalone, however, I think you would get more enjoyment out of reading the other books first. Julia is definitely my go-to cozy mystery author. I tend to lose myself in her stories and characters. As a result, I didn’t read the blurb and was pleasantly surprised to discover that Death on the Night of Lost Lizards takes place during Christmastime.

It’s the month of December and Hana Keller, her mother Maggie, and her grandmother, Juliana Horvath, are busy running around and putting on Christmas events at Maggie’s Tea House, the family business owned by Hana’s mother. After returning home from running errands, Hana is surprised to discover her uncle sent her a Herend’s Yellow Dynasty tea set for her birthday. Hana is so excited to show off the set that she quickly plans a girls’ night out at her house. She invites her neighbor Paige, her best friend Katie, and her boyfriend Erik’s twin sisters Runa and Thyra. While hanging out together, they discover that a murder has been committed at the local university. This leads Hana to remember something she saw earlier in the day. It turns out Hana knows the murder victim and at least one person of interest.

Hana has inherited her Hungarian family’s “gift” of sight or sixth sense. She uses her ability to help her boyfriend, police detective Erik Wolf track down the killer of Sandor Balog, the professor of Hungarian, and the chair of the World Languages Department at Riverwood University. She just isn’t prepared to find herself as the next victim.

Once again, Julia has written an engrossing mystery. I was as in the dark as Hana was. The reveal definitely came as a surprise but made complete sense. The romantic in me is over the moon at Hana and Erik’s blossoming relationship. In fact, this Christmas is going to be a memorable one for the Horvath/Keller family. I really hope there are more books to come in this wonderful Hungarian Mystery series.

~ Favorite Quote ~

“In its most powerful form, grace gives us the strength to endure any trial.”

**Received a copy of the book courtesy of the publisher and voluntarily reviewed it.**

Rating: 5

Purchase Death on the Night of Lost Lizards from:

Amazon | Paperback | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo | Goodreads

The Hungarian Tea House Series:

Death in a Budapest Butterfly ~ Review

Death of a Wandering Wolf ~ Review

Julia Buckley has loved reading and writing since childhood. She is still a sucker for a great story, and, like any bibliophile, she loves libraries, Scholastic Book Fairs, the smell of ink, pads and pens, typewriters, and books you can't put down. She lives in a Chicago suburb with her husband Jeff, a giant dog named Digby and three spoiled but wonderful cats. She has two grown sons and a beautiful daughter-in-law.

Places to find Julia Buckley:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page

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