The Cat Sitter's Whiskers (Dixie Hemingway Mysteries)

Author:  John & Blaize Clement
Genre:  Mystery

Five Stars

Pet sitter Dixie Hemingway is on the prowl again in the newest installment of Blaize Clement's classic and beloved series of cozy mysteries, now written by her son, John Clement, using Blaize's notes and ideas for future adventures.

Set in the sleepy beach-side town of Siesta Key, Florida, The Cat Sitter's Whiskers catches up with Dixie as she heads off for work one morning in the dimly lit hours before sunrise.

Her very first client of the morning is Barney Feldman, a Maine coon cat with a reputation for mischief who's guarding his vacationing owner's valuable collection of decidedly creepy antique masks.  But someone's hiding in the house when she arrives, and they sneak up and knock her out cold.  When the cops arrive at the house, there's just one problem:  no one has broken in and nothing is missing.

Searching for answers, Dixie soon finds herself hopelessly trapped in a murky world of black market antiques, dark-hearted secrets, and murderous revenge...a mystery only she can solve.  

********

Dixie Hemingway, ex-police officer turned pet sitter, is beginning her morning rounds when she notices the car of a school friend parked in front of her house.  Not really alarmed, she knows that Levi now delivers the morning papers, and doesn't give it another thought.  And when she arrives at her first destination, the Kellers' she soon locates their cat, Barney Feldman, and proceeds to feed him.  All seems well - at first.  When she returns from taking the cat food can to the trash, she is confronted by someone wearing one of Mrs. Keller's prized masks - and then everything goes dark, as she is struck on the head.  Waking once, and not believing what she sees - lit candles and the patio doors open - she passes out again, and when awakened for a second time, calls the police and reports it, only to have her story met with skepticism.

When she decides, on a hunch, to go to Levi's and see if he was indeed following her, she is met with an antagonistic woman named Mona, who who threatens her.  And when she opens Levi's door, she finds him dead, lying in a pool of his own blood.  The woman passes out, Dixie calls the police again, and our story begins.

What we have is indeed a tangled tale of greed and murder.  And nothing is quite exactly as it seems.  While Dixie is trying to figure out if she indeed saw at the Kellers' what she imagined she did, she's also trying to figure out exactly what kind of woman Mona is, and who would want to kill Levi, and why.  We soon discover that there is something that was in Mrs. Keller's possession that has been causing all the trouble, something Dixie herself took possession of and delivered, but it didn't end there.

She is also living in her own past - still struggling with the five-year-old death of her husband Todd and daughter Christy in a car accident; and not quite able to reconcile that with her present - her new love Ethan, with whom she has feelings for, but is not willing to explore the relationship any more than they have, and be anywhere else than where they are now.  Two factions warring within themselves, neither of which is winning, and we see only glimpses of what Dixie had or what she envisions for her future.

When the truth about Levi, Mona, and what Dixie delivered is finally rolled out, it makes for an interesting story indeed, and one that is as intriguing to read as it is enjoyable.  Highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Cat-Sitters-Whiskers-Hemingway-Mysteries/dp/1250051169/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1267507554

Secrets in the Sky: A Saffron Sweeting Novel

Author:  Pauline Wiles
Genre:  Fiction/Chick Lit

Four Stars

No one ever accused Sophie Campbell of being a coward.  From caving trips to rooftop pranks, it appeared nothing could hold her back, especially once she landed a dream job promising travel all over the world.

But Sophie’s jet-setting lifestyle is not what it seems and she’s been spending more time in the quiet English village of Saffron Sweeting than she cares to admit. When her beloved Great Aunt Wol dies suddenly, Sophie loses one of the few people who truly know her. As friends, family and an old flame gather for the funeral, questions soon follow. Worse, Sophie finds herself increasingly attracted to the man most likely to expose her secrets. Can she manage to guard her past, yet finally follow her long-held dream?

Featuring both new and familiar characters, this stand-alone romantic comedy is set two years before Saving Saffron Sweeting. With side helpings of British tea, cake and wit, Secrets in the Sky explores how finding the courage to be yourself can be the toughest challenge of all.

********

Sophie Campbell is coping with the death of her beloved Aunt Wol, a retired schoolteacher, with whom she lived.  Upon her aunt's death, she is informed by Wol's solicitor that she has been left quite a tidy sum, around 30,000 pounds.  But the home she has always known doesn't belong to Wol, and she needs to find another place to live.

Moving in with her best friend from school, Bella, Sophie needs to share the lie everyone thinks is the truth:  that she is an air hostess and travels around the world.  But she isn't telling anyone why she's told this lie, and why she's sticking with it.  Oh, part of the reason is quite apparent:  she's terrified to fly.  So terrified that she flunked out of stewardess school.

But Bella has a plan:  She's connected Sophie with an American who teaches healing classes, and the one she's teaching now is Fear of Flying, and she convinces Sophie to to take the class in order to overcome her fear, and become a hostess in reality.  Unwillingly, Sophie agrees, but doesn't realize exactly how much deeper her lying is going to have to be in order to get through the class.

It doesn't help when her ex-boyfriend, Joey, finds out she has money and wants her to be his business partner in a venture, and also assumes they can couple again; nor when the hunky guy she met at the garden center turns out to be a pilot and is co-teaching the class.  Nor when her mother is spending more time in Saffron Sweeting and Sophie's lies start crumbling around her.

I really enjoyed the book, although I wasn't as convinced as Sophie that she needed to maintain the charade all this time.  In some cases, honesty is the best policy, and I believe it would have saved her a lot of trouble just to have 'come clean' in the beginning.

What I didn't like was the character of Joey.  Although he seemed nice enough on the surface, I felt he was a manipulator and couldn't understand why Sophie just didn't tell him to take a hike.  I would have probably within a week after spending time with him.  But, old habits die hard, as they say.  Other than that, I liked most of the characters in the book, and one must do so in order to truly enjoy it.  

However, the book, while starting out slow, (at a funeral, and her subsequent need to move) picked up after the first few chapters.  I enjoyed Sophie's transformation from complete coward (in more ways than one) to the person she finally became at the end.  It was, as they say, a revelation for her, and worth reading the book. 

This is a clean romance, which I enjoy, (never having been one for big sex scenes, so that's a plus), a lot of soul-searching, comedy, people just trying to get through life.  Recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Sky-Saffron-Sweeting-novel/dp/098897312X/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1266572726

The Alpine Zen (Book #26 Emma Lord Mysteries)

Author:  Mary Daheim
Genre:  Mystery

Three Stars

The picturesque town of Alpine in the foothills of Washington state's Cascade Mountains-home to Emma Lord and her weekly newspaper The Alpine Advocate-has long charmed and enthralled mystery lovers.  Now, with The Alpine Zen, Mary Daheim has at last reached the anticipated letter of Z.  Her legion of avid armchair sleuths will relish this deliciously gripping novel.

As an early summer heat wave beats down on Alpine, Emma and her staff are treading very lightly.  For unfathomable reasons, the paper's House & Home editor, Vida Runkel, is in a major snit, refusing to speak to her colleagues, or even her boss.  So when a peculiar young woman walks in claiming her parents have been murdered, and that she's in mortal danger, too, it fits right in with the rest of the craziness.  Then, to the utter bafflement of her colleagues, Vida vanishes without a word to anyone.  And just when Emma and her husband, Sheriff Milo Dodge, start to unsnarl these tangles, a male body, dead too long to identify, surfaces at the town dump-making what seemed merely weird feel downright sinister.  Has the hot weather driven everyone nuts, or are cold-blooded forces committing deadly misdeeds?

********

Emma Lord, having married her police officer, Milo Dodge, is enjoying marital bliss when a young woman bursts into her office with a picture of Alpine on a postcard.  She thinks it might have something to do with her biological mother, whom she thinks was murdered, and wants to know if Emma knew her.  Emma, of course, has no idea, and sends the woman to a local art gallery, hopes that someone there might recognize the picture and know something.  Along the way, the young woman stops everywhere searching, and tells everyone Emma sent her - which, of course, she didn't.  When the woman passes out at the art gallery and is sent to the hospital, we have the beginning of a mystery.  And there it stops.    We never know why she wants to know if her mother was murdered, and I really didn't even care about her or her parent.  I don't feel that we are ever really involved in this woman's life, and I never understood why she was searching for her birth mother anyway, especially since she said that she had wonderful adoptive parents and considered them her "real" parents.  If that were the case, then why would she even care?  There are also subplots involving the discovery of a human skeleton and Vida's disappearing for a few days without a trace.

This, the 26th installment in the Emma Lord mysteries, is more an homage to the other 25 books and merely gives us an update on everyone who was ever involved in those books, and the mysteries take a back seat to the people of Alpine.  Unfortunately, there were a couple of things that really bothered me:

Emma doesn't act like she's in love with Milo.  They bicker constantly, she 'glares' at him, calls him names and tells him she hates him; he calls her nicknames he knows she doesn't like, and expects her to feed him.  Why did they get married?  There are also renovations to her house, courtesy of her new husband, but they never thought to add air conditioning, and she complains constantly about the excessive heat - even mentioning that it might get to eighty degrees by the weekend - which made me laugh, considering we call that 'a nice Spring day' where I live.  But the big thing is the fact that Emma and Milo have no problem drinking and driving.  Even in 2005, there were drunk driving accidents.

I thought the book could have been more interesting if there were less reliance on all the intertwining stories of all the characters; since the first book was published in 1992, and they were read sporadically throughout, I would be hard pressed to remember everyone without reading the books back-to-back again, and for someone new to the series, it would be downright confusing, especially with characters with similar names (Rosemary, Rosemarie.)  I would suggest if you have never read the series that you start at the beginning, with The Alpine Advocate.

http://www.amazon.com/Alpine-Zen-Emma-Lord-Mystery/dp/0345535359/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1265783290

The Final Reveille

Author:  Amanda Flower
Genre:  Mystery

Four Stars

As the director of Barton Farm, a living history museum. Kelsey Cambridge is underpaid and underappreciated, but she loves every minute of it.  Determined to keep the struggling museum open, she plans to impress Barton Farm's wealthy benefactress, Cynthia Cherry, with a Civil War reenactment on the farm's grounds.

Unfortunately, the first shot in the battle isn't from a period soldier.  It's from Cynthia's greedy nephew, Maxwell, who fires a threat at Kelsey to cut the museum's funding.  The next morning, things go from bad to worse when Kelsey discovers Maxwell dead.  Now Kelsey is the number one suspect, and she must start her own investigation to save Barton Farm...and herself.

********

Kelsey Cambridge, director of Barton Farm, is in the beginning of a Civil War reenactment on the farm when she is visited by her benefactress, Cynthia Cherry; Cynthia's nephew, Maxwell, and Maxwell's fiance, Portia.  Maxwell takes Kelsey aside and tells her that when he has control of Cynthia's money he's going to cut off funding to the farm, which which naturally sends a little bit of panic through Kelsey.

So when Maxwell is found dead the next morning in the brick-making pit, stung by bees (which he was highly allergic to) Kelsey is accused of the murder.  Never mind that there was another person in the pit ahead of her - Chase Wyatt, a paramedic who is also part of the reenactment - but because she was seen talking to Maxwell, she's the guilty party.  So now Kelsey must find the real murderer in order to stay out of jail.

Kelsey lives with her young son, Hayden, and her father, who is a Shakespearean actor and who is also taking part in the reenactment.  So when the murder occurs, her ex-husband Eddie shows up - with his fiancee - and wants to take Hayden to stay with him until it's over.  This, of course, doesn't sit well with Kelsey, but she knows it's the best thing for Hayden right now.

I must tell you ahead of time (and there are those of you who already know) that I'm very well-versed in the Civil War (my husband just mentioned a couple of days ago that if I talked with an author about it, I could probably correct him on any errors he'd make.)  So any book that has anything remotely to do with it, I'm on board.  Which is why I was eager to read the book.  And I didn't expect it to be historically accurate.  I tell you this because I am sure someone will comment on it eventually, and I want to remind them ahead of time that this is not an historical story; it is a mystery, and a very good one, centered around a Civil War reenactment.  It does not have to be an accurate reenactment to be a good mystery; and that it is.

The descriptions of the battles are sparse, but the relationships between the two sides is accurate: the Union/Confederate alliances with their groups are spot-on, as everyone stays in character, and for this weekend, they are the opposing forces.    They eat, sleep, and fight on the battlefield much as it was originally (although they are not using deadly ammunition this time.)  The only break, as it were, is from Chase's Uncle Duffy, a general in the Union army and New Hartford police chief, who must do double duty, trying to solve a murder while "fighting a battle."  I enjoyed the fact that this police chief is always one step ahead of Kelsey; when she brings him information, he already knows.  A competent chief who knows his job is always nice to see.

While I guessed the identity of the killer (I often do) before Kelsey herself, it was a delightful path to take watching her question (not always subtly) people to try and get to the heart of the matter.  Yet even when another murder occurs, and things escalate from there, Kelsey does not give up, all the while dealing with problems with Eddie, a reclusive employee named Jason, Chase's pursuit of Kelsey, and a female police detective who makes no bones about the fact she doesn't like her at all. 

I would  have liked to have known more about Jason and Shepley, the gardener, but I imagine the author is keeping that for the next book in the series.  Yet in the end it all came about, as it is supposed to, and I look forward to reading the next installment.  Recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Reveille-Living-History-Museum-Mystery/dp/0738744735/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1260895064

Saving Cecil (A Cleo Cooper Mystery #3)

Author:  Lee Mims
Genre:  Mystery

Four Stars

Extracting precious gas from a deposit in North Carolina is a dirty, dangerous job.  Geologist Cleo Cooper won't let the distraction of a dead body found near the drill site interrupt her focus-until the county sheriff Cleo never wanted to see again arrives on the scene.

Twenty-five years ago, tragedy fell on Cleo's family, creating a rift between her and her father that has never healed.  And Sheriff Clyde Stuckey was the cause.  Now Cleo can't help but remember the painful events she thought were buried by history as she tries to steer clear of a powerful man who's hell-bent on making her suffer.

********

Cleo Cooper has been hired by a dairy farm to do geology prep - after all, that's what she does best since she's a geologist.  While out scouting for sites one morning, she stumbles across the dead body of a young man, Clinton Baker - who has been both stabbed and shot with an arrow through the back.  After checking vitals and finding none, she reports the body immediately.  What she doesn't count on, however, is that Sheriff Clyde Stuckey would investigate, along with a young detective.

Sheriff Stuckey was the cause of the loss of Cleo's family - her mother's death and her father's incarceration (now released) for a murder he didn't commit.  And now the sheriff is doing everything he can think of to convict Cleo of the murder - never mind that she didn't know the victim, and had no stake in profiting in any way from his death.

Along with this, there is the upcoming wedding between Cleo and her ex-husband, Bud, all being planned by their now-grown children, Will and Henri.  Cleo doesn't want anything to do with a big, splashy wedding, but Bud does, and so does her daughter, the actual bridezilla, who is turning into a whirling dervish over the entire affair.

Even though Cleo is told by Detective Chris Bryant  to stay out of it, she doesn't, mainly because she's been accused, and partly because there has been an apparent attempt on her life, which she isn't sharing with anyone but the detective.  

I enjoyed the book for the most part, and I understand that Ms. Sims is a geologist; but unless you're interested in the subject, it gets boring fast.  I don't mind a little information regarding the drilling and what they're doing, but when it goes on for pages, I lose interest.  I don't go to drill sites, and unless others who read this book do, they probably wouldn't find that part interesting, either.  Give us enough information to let us know what's going on, but don't overload our senses with things we don't care about.  (The same goes for any mystery, really.)  

But back to the book:  We get to the murder almost immediately, and then it seemed to have taken a back seat to the drilling, the geology, and the information on finding the fossil.  There were a lot of back stories involved; those already mentioned and also the wedding and the hatred between Cleo's dad and Sheriff Stuckey (although it is never explained why they have always hated each other, just why it escalated, which,  I suppose, is good enough for now.  I would also have liked to have known why Cleo and Bud divorced in the first place, since they seem quite in love with each other.

The bits and pieces about the wedding that was being planned by the children really never seemed to jibe to my ears.  This was a remarriage, a second marriage, and why anyone would want a huge, expensive extremely formal affair that cost an arm and a leg (even if you can afford it) seems rather odd to me.  It somehow seemed over the top in the long run.  There was also a kind of 'ick' factor in that Cleo keeps remarking on Detective Bryant's 'hotness' when he's interested in her daughter.  A tad uncomfortable.

Four stars for the writing (very good,) and the mystery.  Recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Saving-Cecil-Cleo-Cooper-Mystery/dp/0738734276/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1255889238

Bite the Biscuit (A Barkery & Biscuits Mystery #1)

WAuthor:  Linda A. Johnston
Genre:  Mystery

Four Stars

Veterinary technician Carrie Kennersly has become known for offering healthy dog treats at the clinic where she works. So when the owner of the local bakery moves away, Carrie jumps at the chance to buy the business and convert half of it into the Barkery, a shop where she can make and sell her canine delights.

But Myra Ethman, co-owner of another pet product store, hates the new competition. At the Barkery’s opening party, she badmouths Carrie’s homemade dog biscuits, insisting she’ll find a way to shut the place down. When Myra is found dead with a Barkery biscuit beside her, Carrie must prove she didn’t do it before she’s collared for murder.

********

Carrie Kennersly, a veterinary technician, bought her friend Brenda's bakery, Icing on the Cake, and decided to "halve it," by keeping one half the bakery, and using the other half (separated) as the "Barkery," a bakery for dogs.  This way she can also proceed with her real love, baking healthy treats for dogs.  On the day of the grand re-opening, she is confronted by Myra Ethman, who manages the town's resort and owns the Pet Emporium.  Myra has shown up merely to make Carrie's life miserable.  She wastes no time making big noises, telling anyone who will listen that the products are inferior and they'd be fools to buy anything; doing her best to ruin the business before it even gets started.  For the most part, Carrie manages to maintain her composure, but after Myra finally leaves, she's had enough, and makes a statement to the effect that she will do anything to keep Myra from shutting her down.

So when Myra is murdered that evening, she is found with a broken dog biscuit next to her body - one stamped with the Barkery logo, and the police are convinced Carrie killed her.  Carrie knows she didn't kill Myra, and that someone placed the biscuit there to convict her.  But who?  There were so many people in and out of the Barkery the day before, it seems impossible to decide who did it.  But that isn't going to stop our intrepid amateur investigator...

So Carrie goes about trying to figure out who the real killer is without being too obvious about it, even dragging one of her employers - Dr. Reed Storme - with her to the resort for dinner in order to question people.    Yet for all her questions and suspicions that one of Myra's family members might have done the deed, she never really gets close to the guilty party and has a lot of false starts before she figures it out.  I'm not crazy about Dr. Storme, though, even though Carrie likes him.

The thing that bothered me about this book was the cops.  The two investigating officers don't appear to be very nice people, and are probably either the densest or laziest cops I've ever read about.  She has an argument the night before, in front of tons of witnesses, and she automatically becomes not the most likely, but the only suspect.  Yes, that makes her a suspect.  But the more we learn about this woman, the more we find out people didn't even like her (no spoiler, you figure that out almost immediately.)  No one else was even considered, even though the cops say others were eliminated.  I would think the cops would know that the dog biscuit would be too convenient, and figured out immediately she was being set up and proceeded to try and find out why and who would want to do that.  They don't even suspect she was being set up.  The argument she had and the dog biscuit are enough to convict her; they just need the confession.

A good enough start to a new series, and well worth the read.  Recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Bite-Biscuit-Barkery-Biscuits-Mystery/dp/0738745030/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1253986263

Dying Brand (An Allison Campbell Mystery Book 3)

Author:  Wendy Tyson
Genre:  Mystery

Five Stars

When Image Consultant Allison Campbell attends an awards ceremony to honor a designer friend, she's thrust into a murder investigation.  Only this time, it's personal.

A former boyfriend is dead, slain on the streets of Philadelphia. His widow claims he was meeting with Allison, yet Allison hadn't spoken to him in years. Nothing about his death—or life—makes sense. When compromising photos from their past arrive at Allison’s office, they raise more questions than they answer.

Driven to find justice, Allison deconstructs the image her ex had created for himself, looking for clues about the man he’d become. As her hunt for the truth unveils secrets, Allison’s past and present collide—with deadly results.

********

Allison Campbell is a successful Image Consultant.  She helps people not only look good for the job they either have or want to have, but helps them with their personal well-being; learning how to act, breathe, feel confident, etc.

While attending a former client's award dinner, she receives an odd text from the wife of an old client - and ex-lover.  It seems Scott Fairweather has died, murdered - and his widow, Leah, wants to know why Allison's name was on his calendar for that day.  She is convinced that Allison has continued her affair with Scott (even though it was ended before Scott married,) and nothing Allison says is convincing her otherwise.

But now Allison is curious as to why.  And if she wasn't sure she wanted to get involved, she soon receives an unmarked manila envelope with photos inside - photos of her and Scott in compromising positions.  Photos, that if leaked, could cause serious problems in her relationship with Jason, her ex-husband and current love.

Although Jason and Allison are divorced, they're still deeply in love and planning a new future together, although right now they're still in the 'planning stages.'  Allison had a short fling with Scott when she was newly separated, and since it's been several years since she saw him, doesn't understand why her name would be on his calendar.

Allison finds out that Scott's death was highly suspicious, and highly out of character for him, so she starts investigating on her own, and things begin to heat up.  She starts digging for the truth, and soon finds herself in a tunnel that she may not be able to find her way out of.

The more she digs, the thicker the walls seem to be; and when she receives another envelope with more pictures, she's even more sure that Scott's death wasn't as random as the police seem to think it was - a drug deal gone bad.

With the help of Vaughn, her business manager and friend, his brother Jamie, her computer expert, and Mia, Jason's mother, Allison is discovering that Scott may have been in over his head, and some things are better left alone.  Even warnings to stay out of it by both friends and enemies, Allison presses on, and by the time she finds out what she's been searching for, it may be too late to save even herself.

I also enjoyed the fact that the personal lives of not only Allison and Jason are taken into new territory, but the lives of others in her circle are affected in their lives as well.  For while Allison is trying to navigate her life with Jason yet keeping him from finding out about Scott, her absent sister Amy appears with a problem of her own and needs Allison's help.  It is here that we find out more about Allison as a human being, and how she deals with personal problems, regardless of the outcome.

As the third book in the Allison Campbell mysteries, it can be read as a stand-alone, but I also recommend you read the first two, Killer Image and Deadly Assets.  A first-class mystery and welcome addition to the series.  Kudos to Ms. Tyson.  Highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Dying-Allison-Campbell-Mystery-Volume/dp/1941962599/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1249566062

Slayed on the Slopes (A Pacific Northwest Mystery Book 2)

Author:  Kate Dyer-Seeley
Genre:  Mystery

Five Stars

After talking her way into a job writing for Portland's Northwest Extreme magazine, Meg Reed may now really be in over her head. Actually, about 8,000 feet over her head. . .

She's at Mount Hood's remote Silcox Hut, covering the the seriously hardcore Ridge Rangers-- Oregon's elite high-altitude rescue team--during their four-day winter training. Sure, Meg beefed up her outdoor skills over the summer . . . but she's still hoping to cover the event with some hot chocolate by the cheery fireplace. Then, during a sudden blizzard, she swears she hears gunshots. No one stranded in the hut believes her . . . until self-absorbed Ridge Ranger Ben Rogers is found outside in a pool of frozen blood. Meg's now got to find this killer quickly . . . before cabin fever does them all in!

********

Meg Reed works for an outdoor sports magazine, even though she doesn't do any outdoor sports.  Which her boss, Greg, doesn't know, because Meg keeps answering in the affirmative every time he asks her about it.  Meg needed a job, and when Greg made the offer, she jumped at the chance, because she wanted to be a writer and reporter, just like her late father, Charlie Reed.

But Meg's learning to adapt to her environment.  She's invited to do a story on the newly-founded Ridge Rangers, a high-altitude rescue team-in-training.  She's going up 7,000 feet with them, to stay at the Silcox Hut, and watch them as they practice.  But before anyone can even start, there's a blizzard the first night and the team's financial backer Ben Rogers, goes missing and is later found under a picnic table, shot dead.

Meg at first thinks her friend Henry, who brought a gun along, might be the killer.  But having been with his former rescue group, the Crag Rats, just recently, soon banishes that thought and begins seeking clues as to who might have actually done the deed.  Even though she's warned away by Greg.  And Sheriff Daniels, the investigating officer, who also happens to be courting her Grandmother, 'Gam.'

As if that weren't enough, she's stuck with a bridezilla in the form of Malory, who's engaged to one of the rangers, Jackson Hughes, who is also a doctor.  Then there's Lola, the sort-of housemother who has a secret of her own, Clint, who left the Rats to become a Ranger, and when she finally makes it down the mountain she runs into her best friend Jill, who is there to attend a wedding, along with her boyfriend, Will, whom Meg doesn't like at all, and a surprise in Matt, her maybe-could be-wannabe friend/boyfriend.

Needless to say, it all makes for one interesting book.  From the first night when we meet the obnoxious Ben and the rest of the Rangers, and right through the end of the book, there are a lot of red herrings along the way, with Meg constantly receiving false information (inadvertently) and mixed signals from all of her 'suspects.'

Using the excuse that she's naturally curious because she's a reporter, she keeps on digging where she should have let things lie.  And soon enough, it becomes clear that someone wants her to say out of it all - permanently.

A delightful read and worthy endeavor to the second in the series.  I'm eager to read the next one as soon as it is published.  Highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Slayed-Slopes-Pacific-Northwest-Mystery/dp/1617730009/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1244002157