Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; [MP 3]; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780451413659; [9781494561178]
Obsidian Mystery; [Tantor Audio]
343 Pages
$7.99; [$29.99], $4.99 Amazon
December 2, 2014
⭐⭐⭐
Angie's parents are visiting her in Rolling Brook, Ohio, for Christmas -- but unfortunately, her ex is joining them. Luckily, Angie has no time to dwell on her romantic troubles as she prepares her store, Running Stitch, for the town's traditional progressive dinner, which features a sleigh ride that stops at each shop for a different course of the meal.
The meal ends with an Amish-themed Christmas play at the Swiss Valley Hotel and Barn. But the performance is cut short when an actress falls to her death from the scaffolding. Once the sheriff suspects foul play, tensions between the Amish and Englisch heat up, as do rivalries among the acting troupe. Now Angie and her quilting circle must stitch together clues before they're the ones running for cover...
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It's nearing Christmas in Rolling Brook, Ohio, and Angie Braddock, who inherited her Aunt Eleanor's Amish quilting shop, is gearing up for her parents visit. She's not happy that her mother has invited her ex-fiancé, Ryan, but there isn't anything she can do about it except vow not to spend any more time with him than she needs to. It's also apparent Sheriff Mitchell isn't happy about Ryan being there, as his own relationship with Angie is starting to take shape.
On the night of the Amish progressive dinner, everyone is going to various places for a different course, and then at the end watching a play put on by an acting troupe. Angie discovers that the lead actress - Eve Shetler - is former Amish and not everyone wants her there. It's never more apparent than when she falls to her death from scaffolding, and the suspects range from the Amish to the Englisch. Angie decides to do a little sleuthing herself since she met and liked Eve, even if everyone wants her to stay out of the investigation. But somehow it's giving her more questions than answers, and the final one will make all the difference...
This is the third book in the series, and I think I liked it better than the first two. While I really didn't think Angie had any real claim to investigate, I did like the idea of the progressive dinner, and merging Amish Christmases with Englisch ones seemed interesting in itself. We got to learn more about Angie's parents which was a lot of fun, and her mother's idea of decorating a Christmas tree was unusual, to say the least.
I really didn't care for the fact that Angie was dodging Ryan instead of talking to him, but I guess it was what he deserved for deserting her at the altar, after all. I would have expected her to develop a little bit of backbone with everything she's been through; but I didn't see that. Still, I imagine she had her reasons for putting him off.
When we finally get into the mystery, which actually played second fiddle to Angie's non-visit and visit with her parents (read the book and you'll understand why I say that) I didn't feel that we were given enough on the murder itself; and while the clues were there, at the same time they actually weren't. There was one huge red herring that turned out to not to have anything to do with it at all, actually. So while I don't think this was a bad book, I do think it could have been given a little more detail on the mystery to solve.
https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Served-Simply-Amish-Mystery/dp/0451413652/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3331132281
More on Isabella Alan's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/isabella-alan/
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