Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback: Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780425274514
Berkley Prime Crime Publishing
290 Pages
$7.99; $5.99 Amazon
May 3, 2016
⭐⭐⭐
The entire town of Cranberry Cove is popping with excitement. Monica Albertson is baking cranberry goodies by the dozen and shopkeepers are decking out their storefronts for the first annual Winter Walk -- an event dreamed up by the mayor to bring visitors to the town during a normally dead time of year.
But it's the mayor who turns up dead during the grand opening ceremony, his lifeless body making its entrance in a horse-drawn sleigh. Monica's mother and stepmother quickly become the prime suspects when it's discovered that the mayor was dating both of them, and to make things worse, her half brother, Jeff, uncovers a clue buried near one of the bogs on Sassamanash Farm. Now it's up to Monica to find out who really put the mayor on ice.
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Monica Albertson left her home in Chicago to move to small-town Cranberry Cove, Michigan, to help her half brother on his cranberry farm. She bakes goods for their store, and does whatever else he needs her to do. She's been settling in nicely, and even has begun a new relationship with a local bookstore owner.
Also present is her brother Jeff's mother, Gina, who's opened a store and move there, too. Now, though, her own mother, Nancy, because she's met a man who lives in Cranberry Cove and has decided to pay a visit to both him and Monica. But soon after her arrival, he's murdered -- and she discovers that not only was he seeing her, but Gina. Now the local police have told her not to leave town, because both women might be suspects. To make it worse, Monica finds that her friend Tempest is also a suspect in the murder. So Monica decides to do an investigation on her own, and hopefully find a killer who just might get away with it...
This is the second book in the series and I am glad to say that I liked it much better than the first. While it started out slow, I was happy to see that in this book Monica has developed a bit of a backbone, and I also like the fact that even though Nancy disliked Gina, they aren't at each other's throats and have come to a common ground. (I really dislike the 'evil nemesis' angle in books).
Although Monica knows both women are innocent, she begins to wonder who hated the mayor enough to kill him. While there aren't a lot of suspects, Monica sets her sights on one in particular, but then something occurs to make her wonder if she's looking in the right direction. She gives what clues she does discover to the police, and hopes that Detective Stevens will follow through on them.
While this book isn't too involved in throwing everyone red herrings, one thing I didn't care for was the fact that Monica was like a dog with a bone. She wasn't going to let go of her insistence on this person being the guilty party, and had made up scenarios in her own head how they could have done it. I get that she wanted to prove her mother, Gina, and Tempest innocent, but I didn't feel that there was really anything pointing to them specifically anyway.
When the ending came and the killer was revealed, the reason for the murder was again an interesting one that was unexpected, and I did enjoy the way the murderer was caught. It was done differently, and that was a nice change. As stated above, I did enjoy this book more than the last and I will continue the series to see if it improves even further.
https://www.amazon.com/Berry-Hatchet-Cranberry-Cove-Mystery/dp/0425274519/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3230630942
More on Peg Cochran's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/peg-cochran/
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