This was a great read as it has quirky characters, tangled loyalties, and just enough grit to balance the humour throughout.

This book follows Chern’s Edgar winner, Play the Fool, which introduced Tarot card reader Katie True. While I haven’t read the first book, this one still did an excellent job of weaving Katie’s origin story into the plot. As the book opens, Katie, who runs a tarot reading business out of her sister’s real estate office, is stunned when her friend Gina is arrested for the murder of local hero cop, Matthew Peterson, better known in town as “Officer Pete.” Not only is Katie rocked by Gina’s arrest, she’s rocked by the death of Officer Pete, who famously rescued baby Katie True from a car wreck and saved her life.

As she grew, Officer Pete had checked in with her, telling her she had been saved for something extraordinary. While Pete may have meant well, Katie feels not only is this far from true, but she’s pretty much failed at everything: college, jobs, relationships. Her little tarot reading place in her sister’s office is the only thing that feels right to her. Otherwise, she lives in a crappy and noisy apartment and drives a crappy car.

What she has going for her are friends – Gina, for one, but there’s also Jamie, a cop, and Matt, Officer Pete’s son who has reappeared after this tragedy and is reconnecting with Katie. And there’s also her odd, genius brother Owen who sometimes appears in her apartment. He’s a professor and sometimes crashes with Katie to get some work done. This oddly assembled group (except perhaps Owen) are all trying to find out who killed Officer Pete. The only thing Katie is certain of: it wasn’t Gina.

Weaved through the story are vignettes of Katie and her slightly disreputable aunt Rosie, who taught her cards when she was eight. Each card Rosie turns over for the young Katie then ties to the chapter in the present, which is a neat structural trick, as well as giving the reader an insight into why Katie finds tarot a refuge in a busy and chaotic world. The way the cards are explained in this book, the way Katie reads them, make so much sense I became a convert.

I also became a convert to Chern’s prose and her sometimes nuttily resonant turns of phrase. She so captures the chaos of being a young person in the world trying to figure out where you might best belong, something that’s not limited to finding the perfect job, as Katie also seems pretty clueless in the romance department.

This book is also an excellent look at the public persona of someone – in this case, Officer Pete – who visited schools, sponsored a children’s group, and was a great dad, whose son, Matt, has grown up in his image and become a cop. And then there’s the underside of Officer Pete, which of course is a major part of the book. The public part of the man was so accepted and so circulated that the underside is hard or impossible for people to grasp.

Katie, through sheer determination and a belief in her cards (she carries them with her everywhere) does manage to get to the bottom of Pete’s murder. This book for sure isn’t a cozy but it’s not quite a noir either. It’s certainly a thoughtful and original read. I enjoyed Katie True and look forward to reading more about her.

Katie True is such a delightful character — I was so happy to find out that she’s back in “Tricks of Fortune” by Lina Chern after making her amusing debut in “Play the Fool.” This book is again witty, charming, clever and dosed with a lot of sardonic humor. It definitely can be read as a standalone, but you’ll be enticed to go back and read the first book.

Our current Katie is still in northern Illinois, in the far-reaching suburbs of Chicago that get close to the Wisconsin border and feature towns that all have local lakes. She’s currently set up as “Out of the Blue Consultations” in one of her sister’s satellite real estate offices. Her guy friend is Officer Jamie, her quirky brother is Owen, and her unusual ex-cop friend is Gina. Katie does want more out of her tarot readings, she doesn’t want to be “dressing up like Madame von Freakshow so I can tell some drunk VP of sales if he’ll score at the hotel bar that night is not what I had in mind. I want to solve a real problem for someone.”

As an infant, Katie was spectacularly rescued from a car crash by local legend Officer Pete, and nearly thirty years later, Officer Pete is found murdered, Jamie is assigned as a task force investigator, and Gina is a suspect. Of course Katie will get involved.

Her unique investigation technique is to keep the reading cards of the people who knew Pete (it’s her clever way of getting suspects to give up information) but it’s her perception and intelligence that sees clues and assembles the missing parts of the mystery. She still sees people as cards: Officer Pete is the Knight of Swords

We do get more background on how 8 year old Katie learned to read tarot cards from her wacky Aunt Rosie, and this is an evenly paced mystery with well-developed characters. I just loved it! 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO No eye colors except for some flat blue ones.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO And Matt is spot on about lotuses only blooming in August.
Thank you to Bantam and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

+ I read book one of this series, Play the Fool and really enjoyed it. So I picked up the sequel and tarot reading, Katie True is back and now she’s navigating life being known as the girl from the accident and trying to help solve a murder of the cop from that accident.

+ In the first book Katie was kind of lost in life and an under achiever and I liked seeing her growth. Now Katie is more settled in this sequel and she’s dating Jaime, who’s a detective. This one is definitely more cozy than the first book.

~ If you love cozy mysteries, you will enjoy this book but for me, I missed the action, twists and turns that I loved in book one.

~ This one moved to slow for me and it left me uninvested in the story.

Final Thoughts:

I enjoyed book one more than this one because Katie’s character had room to grow. I feel like this one moved too slowly for me and I didn’t connect to the characters. If you like cozy mysteries, definitely give this series a try.

This was a fun mystery read! I did not read the first book in the series prior to this one, but I didn’t feel like I had any issues following the story. I definitely plan on going back and reading the first in the series because I did like this book. The mystery aspect of this book was really good and I also liked that humor was sprinkled into the book as well.

3.5 rounded to 4

I wish I had known this would be a sequel.

Having read tarot for many decades, I was interested in the POV on the cards. Perhaps a little too much unexplained woo, juxtaposing the mystery with the cards. I found myself faltering; finally I wished the mystery would go away, in favor of deeper reach into character, but I'm not much one for murder mysteries. Your mileage may vary.

I didn’t realize this was a sequel when I requested it. I have done this a few times so I’m unsure if I just miss it or if netgalley doesn’t always list it

When a police officer who saved Katie’s life as a child is murdered, she feels the need to help bring his killer to justice. With the use of her beloved deck, she reads the cards and follows the clues. Can she sell the case before either one of her nearest and dearest is charged or the death card comes calling for her?

This is the second book in the series and it was well worth the wait. I love Katie and her use of tarot cards throughout the story. The author has done a great job of weaving in the deck along with a mystery that keeps you guessing, turning and going down rabbit holes until the final reveal.

I loved it! I'm definitely going to spread the word about this great series in some groups I belong to. The dialogue is smart and engaging and the mystery caught me off guard but makes complete sense. I especially enjoyed the tarot teaching moments with her aunt - I'd really like to meet her. Excellent writer!

Although this is the second book in a series, it is the first one that I have read. It was easy to read this as a standalone as I did not feel that there were enough references to the first book to hinder the story.
It was a fun read. A cozy mystery where a tarot card reading girl attempts to help solve a murder. A murder that her friend has been accused of. A different twist on crime solving but none the less it was an interesting read.
It was a quick, easy read and I would recommend it for an afternoon of binge reading.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book

Second in a series for me. This marks an exception to my usually liking subsequent books in a series more than the opener.
This story expounds on the story from book one of Katie being saved as a baby from a car crash by a beloved local policeman known as Officer Pete. Now Officer Pete has shockingly been murdered and Katie wants to work with her “romantic interest?” to help solve the case. In the process she learns more about Officer Pete than she ever wanted to.
I must say the story held my interest and I definitely was invested in learning WhoDunIt.
The unfolding was implausible to me and a bit dramatic without much logic or grounding. It felt a bit Keystone Cop like.
I was hoping for more about Katie’s tarot reading skills and the book delivered that with flashbacks to her Aunt Rosie who taught tarot reading to Katie. While it was interesting I had trouble relating its points to where I was in the story. I just did not get how they helped her solve the murder or in fact the rationale behind card reading.
I did find the relationship between Katie and Jaime to be interesting as well as learning more about how Katie views the world and her place in it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House/ Ballantine for the ARC to review. All opinions my own. Expected publication July 1.

Katie True doesn't want to believe her best friend killed America's Boy Scout, but it sure does look like it.

Lina Chern brings Katie and her Tarot cards back for a second mystery in Tricks of Fortune. Recalling how her aunt taught her the deck, Katie deals a hand for every suspect. Her aunt isn't the only freaky character in the book.

There's the dead Scout's wife and son. There's the top officer in the police department. There's Katie's brilliant brother and over-achiever sister. And of course there's the best friend.

Chern 's scenes pop into the reader's brain like scenes from the movie Fantasia. This book is a trip.

Tarot Card Reader Katie True teams up with cop Jamie Roth to help solve the murder of a fellow police officer. When her best friend is accused of his murder she must use her tarot reading skills to help solve the crime. The secrets she uncovers will threaten not only her life but the lives of those she loves.

This is a cute, cozy mystery with lots of humor throughout. I enjoyed reading the main character interactions with the locals and it was interesting how her tarot card skills were woven into the story. This was a quick, easy read with an interesting twist on how to solve a crime. Although this is the second book in the series, you do not need to read the first one to follow the story.


Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Bantam for the ARC!

As much as I love a mystery, this was more cozy then the gritty mystery I am used to. The main character sleuths to clear her friend's maybe involvement in an active police investigation. No protocol, just "tell us what you find out". The friend was shifty as all get out, it was hard to root for her. Some parts stuck, some parts were great. The tarot card readings were my favorite. Overa all it was a fun ride.

Thank you to Random House/Ballantine Books, Bantam, and Netgalley . My opinions are my own!

I could not wait to read the second book in this series. And it did not disappoint.

Murder, mayhem, and mall-based mysticism? Yes, please! Let me set the scene: a strip mall. A psychic. A murder. And a protagonist who might be a little emotionally undercooked, but hey, aren’t we all? Tricks of Fortune is like if your quirky friend who reads tarot at brunch accidentally stumbled into a criminal conspiracy while trying to avoid her actual responsibilities. And honestly? It’s a good time.

Katie’s not your average amateur sleuth. She’s a hot mess with a deck of tarot cards and just enough skepticism to make her fun. She sets up shop in her sister’s strip mall and things are going great…until a beloved local cop winds up very dead and her best friend gets arrested. So, naturally, she grabs her Rider-Waite and decides to Nancy Drew her way out of the mess.

Does she have formal training? No.
Does she have a plan? Also no.
Does she solve the case anyway? What would be the fu in telling you that?

The book starts off with a lot of characters and I briefly needed a flowchart. But once it finds its rhythm, it clicks together like a really satisfying Tupperware lid. There are crooked cops, family secrets, and tarot spreads that somehow always say “girl, run.” The mystery itself is layered enough to be engaging but not so convoluted that you need to light a candle and meditate on it.

Katie’s tarot readings are actually useful, both in plot and character growth. There’s even a cool aunt named Rosie who drops wisdom like, “Sometimes the cards tell you what you don’t want to hear.” (Ouch, but fair.) If you’re into woo-woo with a backbone, you’ll appreciate the way it’s woven in. The woo-woo is explained as not really being woo-woo-y in the end.

This book is a mystery with sass, snark, and spiritual guidance on the side. It’s perfect for readers who want murder with their meditation and sleuthing with their sage smudges. Sure, it starts a little slow and occasionally trips over its own character count, but once it gets rolling, it’s a very entertaining ride.

The murder of a police officer shakes a small town, and his connection with a tarot card reader with an investigative itch to scratch makes her a useful resource in Lina Chern’s Tricks of Fortune.
With her life in a bit more order and a dedicated space for her tarot readings in her sister’s real estate office, where she also works and has larger tarot jobs curated by her sister, Katie’s found a rhythm to her days but misses being part of investigations and the exciting thrill solving the mystery provides. Life soon answers with the murder of Officer Peterson, who happened to save Katie’s life as a baby and is a notable figure in the community, whose crime scene doesn’t quite add up. With her friend Gina poised as a primary suspect for the murder, Katie is left to wonder just how much she really knows about Gina, who has always kept elusive about her past, while she rekindles her childhood friendship with the son of Officer Pete, Matt, who followed in his father’s footsteps to become a police officer, and she investigates alongside Jamie, who’s officially assigned to the case. Dredging up memories of the past while delving deeper into details of the case beyond the insights her cards bring her, concealed and surprising realities surrounding the people and situations around Katie are revealed, which changes her perception to guide her interactions.
With a more serious tone to the story than Play the Fool, but keeping hints of humor that shape Katie’s character, the narrative moves at a slightly slower pace while it maintains an air of mystery through a preserved opaqueness and obscured truth through enough plausible justifications that redirected attention until a breaking point is eventually reached that reveals all. The story is intriguing with real-world issues to confront while standing well on its own with enough details provided if readers pick this up without having read the first in the universe of Katie True tarot-related sleuthing, but it does help further contextualize her interactions with and the behaviors of other characters, like Gina, Jamie, or Owen, for those who have read the first book. The tarot element was more thoroughly integrated throughout this narrative than the previous story, perhaps due to a slightly more established business venture, even if not quite in the form Katie desired, as well as due to the backstory of how Katie learned tarot through remembered lessons with her Aunt Rosie, a complement to the nostalgic sheen to the case at hand. While there were significant elements to Katie’s character presented that would contribute toward development, such as being rescued as a baby, that offer an opportunity for growth, this, along with the flashbacks with Aunt Rosie, feel more introductory to character than something than included in a second story, making it feel a bit out of place or as if it were an afterthought included later to better explain the crime being covered up and how interconnected all the characters were with one another yet unable to comprehend what was going on.
Overall, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks to Net Galley and Random House Ballantine for allowing me this arc. Unfortunately I dnf and could not connect. I found all the tarot card readings distracting.

Overall a good story.
Katie is drawn into sleuthing when her best friend, Gina is accused of killing the beloved police officer that saved Katie's life when she was a baby.
I love the use of the tarot cards to help solve the murder, and the characters are great. At times the story dragged a bit, at least in the beginning. I was glad I read through to the end though.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Someone has murdered the beloved community hero, Officer Matthew Peterson. But who would want to kill him? Gina Dio becomes the number one suspect: once a colleague of Peterson’s who left the police force under pressure. Her friend, Katie True, might tell you she still works in law enforcement, but mainly on the shady side (facts that don’t sit well with the police). To help Gina find the real killer, amateur sleuth Katie True will use the skills her aunt Rosie taught her: focus, intuition, empathy, and trust in her interpretation of tarot cards.

For our hero, Katie, tarot cards are a way to open and settle her mind. They allow her to approach a situation with her strength in nonlinear thinking. This serves well when working with her “partner” Jamie: friend, police officer, and maybe-someday romantic interest. His training in following leads and dealing with facts compliments her intuition. As the suspect list gets longer, Gina and Katie find they have links with the deceased and the suspects which may put them in danger. Yikes

This is the second installment in the Play the Fool Mystery series; however, you don’t need to read book one to follow and enjoy this one. With snappy dialogue and humor, this cozy mystery was a delight to read. I appreciate the writer creating a female character who is witty, insightful, and fearless, having grown from book one to book two. The secondary characters have well developed personalities, and the story rolls along; gaining speed towards a satisfying ending. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

I would like to thank Bantam and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Random House - Ballantine for the ARC of Tricks of Fortune by Lina Chern.

I stumbled upon the first book in the series, Play the Fool, last week, and was pleased to receive an ARC to continue Katie True's story.

I would give this a solid 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 here.

In this sequel, it has been a year and Katie now has her own tarot card reading office based out of one of her sister's properties. She's maintained her friendships with Gina and Jamie. Her brother, Owen, remains the heart of the book with his delightful intrusions into her personal space. Things seem to be going well, but then a cop who saved Katie from a car accident when she was an infant is brutally murdered and no one can seem to solve the crime. When Gina is accused of the murder, and with her past feeling like a focal point, Katie is onto a new case and into new danger.

Having read the first book so recently I think it feels in conflict with the sequel, or, rather, like parts of the second book should have been what established the first book and now seem out of place. The flashbacks with Gina's aunt explaining how tarot cards work would have been incredibly helpful in the first book, so it may have been a recommendation from other readers to do so for this one. For me, while helpful, it now just felt a bit out of place. Katie's backstory with Officer Peterson also felt out of place as this rescue seems like a very large piece of family lore that better explains some of her reticence as a human to "accomplish great things." It was odd for her all of a sudden to be a mini-celebrity where everyone recognizes her name vs the first book where everyone just thinks her name is fake. I also found myself a bit confused about the relation of the town where Officer Peterson worked vs where Katie now lives / her family lives and how Jamie gets pulled across multiple town departments - it didn't really track to me how they all align.

When it comes to the mystery itself, I think I solved it by about the 30% mark and then it was just a matter of the threads working themselves out as to the why. I think the ending part about the consequences this person faced seemed impossible considering the premeditated murder and timeline of how court cases work, and that really threw me off the story at the very end.

I did like the story, but I think there were some sequel growing pains here trying to overcorrect aspects of the first book to realign for the future of the series. I would still be interested in how the series continues and how Katie continues to grow into this new skill and in her friendships and family relationships. I appreciate that she uses tarot to read people, not to actually have a paranormal ability, and I like that it's used as how she views people and the world as opposed to being the reason the crimes are solved. Like I mentioned earlier, Owen is really the star of the whole series and he adds great levity to all of his scenes. Katie and Jamie are trying to protect their friendship by avoiding becoming romantically entangled, but their relationship is evolving regardless. Gina remains a mystery, and an interesting one at that, though I hope the third book isn't once again focused around her antics in relation to a murder and it expands outward.