Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781643850061
Crooked Lane Books
$17.70; $12.99 Amazon
July 9, 2019
⭐⭐
Nina Fleet's life ought to be sweet as a Georgia peach. Awarded a tidy sum in her divorce, Nina retired at 41 to a historic Queen Anne house in quaint Cymbeline, GA. But Nina's barely settled into her new B&B-to-be when a penguin shows up on her porch. Or, at least, a man wearing a penguin suit.
Harry Westcott is making ends meet as an ice cream shop's mascot and has a letter from his great-aunt, pledging to leave him the house. Too bad that's not what her will says. Meanwhile, the Sisters of Perpetual Poverty have lost their lease. Real estate developer Gregory Bainbridge intends to turn the convent into a golfing community, so Cymbeline's mayor persuades Nina to take in the elderly nuns. And then Nina finds the "penguin" again, this time lying in an alley with a kitchen knife in his chest.
A peek under the beak tells Nina it's not Harry inside the costume, but Bainbridge. What was he doing in Harry's penguin suit? Was the developer really the intended victim, or did the culprit mean to kill Harry? Whoever is out to stop Harry from contesting the sale of his great-aunt's house may also be after Nina, so she teams up with him to cage the killer before someone clips her wings.
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Nina Fleet is a 41-year-old divorceé who bought an old Victorian home just outside Atlanta, Georgia in small-town Cymbeline. She'd like to turn it into a B&B, but the mayor won't let her. One day she receives a knock on her door and answers it, seeing a six-foot-tall penguin standing there. Well, actually it's a man in a penguin suit, and he eventually tells her she's living in his house and demands she give it back. He has a letter from his great-aunt, the former owner, that states an intent to leave the house to him in her will, but she died before she could change it.
Nina refuses to give the home back, and Harry Westcott, an out-of-work actor, threatens to take her to court. Not a good start. Later the mayor shows up with a bus full of nuns and tells her she'll fast-track her request to open the B&B if she takes in a group of nuns who have been evicted from their convent. Faced with not much of a choice, she agrees.
She finds out that Gregory Bainbridge, a developer, has evicted the nuns so that he can build homes on their land. When she starts talking to people, it's apparent that everyone hates Bainbridge. But it's even more apparent when she's called to help someone who's been stabbed in the chest - and seeing the penguin suit, she thinks it's Harry. But it's Bainbridge, and now she has an entire stable of suspects - namely almost everyone in town.
But then Harry tells her that he was the intended victim, and he has a stalker that's trying to kill him. But the situation gets out of control when Nina realizes that there's more at stake than a stalker, and she needs his help to find a killer...
I guess I was expecting more from this book than I received. Firstly, the title is disappointing. You'd think Peach Clobbered would mean something like someone dying by having a truckload of peaches fall on them. In fact, the only peaches mentioned in the book is peach cobbler, and trust me, no one dies from eating it. (A better title would have been Death of a Penguin). Anyway...
I got tired of her telling everyone her name was Nine-ah, not Neen-ah. So why didn't her parents name her Nyna? Then she wouldn't have to keep correcting anyone. It got annoying after awhile. I also thought it was pretty stupid to open a B&B if you can't cook. Wouldn't catering in breakfast eat into your profits? Plus, eating quiche every day of the week? Half the fun is the different choices for breakfast each day. Cereal? Seriously? When no children were staying there? Who goes to a B&B and eats cereal? Coffee and tea but not milk nor juice? My suggestion is that she learns to cook so she can actually make money, not spend it. Details, people.
BELOW IS A SPOILER SO PLEASE DO NOT READ ANY FARTHER UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW:
But here's the biggie: While Harry may not like the fact Nina has his great-aunt's house, she bought it legally and holds the deed. He can't sue her for that. He can't demand she give the house to him. He has a letter, not a writ of execution that states the house belongs to him. He has a letter that states she's going to it, but no will stating the fact; and, the opposing attorney could claim that perhaps she changed her mind and decided not to give him the house after all. Poor Harry doesn't have much of a claim after all.
Now, if he were to sue anyone, he could sue his father - the legal executor of the will. If his father knew about the letter and sold the house out from under him, then he might have a case. But a letter saying, "yes, you can have it" probably wouldn't hold up in the long run. It would, of course, depend upon who the judge was; but I can't see basing an entire series around an improbability - and the story line will get old fast with Nina and Harry 'helping' each other solve cases and then him threatening to take her house every chance he got. Why doesn't he get a real job and buy a house instead of expecting someone to just give it to him for free?
No, thanks. Harry is a taker - he's not a likable person; he wants things given to him but isn't willing to do anything just because it's the right thing to do. He's not willing to see that she bought the house fair and square; he wants her to give it to him merely because he thinks he deserves it. I saw nowhere where he told her he spoke with either his father or the attorney who wrote the will before confronting Nina. He derides her and even blackmails her if she doesn't do what he wants. Harry's the worst society has to offer and I'd be happy never to see or hear from him again.
Sorry, but as long as there's a chance Harry might be in this series again, I think I'll skip this one.
https://www.amazon.com/Peach-Clobbered-Georgia-Anna-Gerard/dp/1643850067/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2897262055
More on Anna Gerard's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/g/anna-gerard/
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