Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496716583
Kensington Publishing
333 Pages
$7.99; $.6.99 Amazon
May 28, 2019
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Her freelance career is catching fire. Her relationship with B&B owner Ian Sterling is flirty and fun. She's even attending a glittering cocktail party at his sprawling Victorian inn.
But, to this ex-reporter, something seems "off." And it's not the canapés. When Ian's father vanishes, the enigmatic innkeeper asks for her discretion. And her assistance.
Meanwhile, Alex is having the opposite problem at her tiny bungalow. People keep piling in uninvited, including a mysterious intruder found sleeping in her kitchen. Her grandmother, Baba, who shows up "to help" -- with Alex's own mother hot on her heels.
When the intrepid redhead discovers a body in the B&B's basement and a "reproduction" Renoir in the library, she begins to suspect that Ian is more than just a simple hotel owner.
With editor pal Trip, brother Nick, and rescue-pup Luch riding shotgun, Alex scrambles to stay one step ahead of disaster -- and some very nasty characters.
Can she find the missing man before it's too late? Or will Alex be the next one to disappear?
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
Alex Vlodnachek is a freelance writer who's just taken a temporary job as an advice columnist for a local newspaper while the columnist is on a six-week vacation. What she doesn't know -- and soon finds out -- is that the columnist is a crochety elderly man named Marty, who's just escaped from the local hospital. When she returns him, they hit it off, and he agrees to let her cover for him.
She also has a house guest in the form of her younger brother Nick, who's a whiz in the kitchen and has been making pastries for local businesses, including the new B&B across the street. It doesn't hurt that the owner of the B&B, a Brit named Ian Sterling, has taken a liking to her, too.
But things don't come easy in Alex's life, ever since she was fired from her last job and accused of murdering her boss (she didn't). So the morning after the party at Ian's, she goes into her kitchen and finds a baby on the table, strapped to his car seat. First believing Nick knows something about it (he doesn't); they try and figure out what to do. Neither has experience with babies, so they're basically flying by the seat of their pants. Eventually they figure that their grandmother, Baba, can be some help in this situation (she is), so they invite her to stay. But it doesn't end there.
First there's the body in Ian's basement. Then Marty shows up at her house unannounced, stating he's the target of a killer. Then there's another body...and the crises just keep building up until Alex thinks she's in some kind of a warped video game and can't escape. Now Alex not only has her hands full, she thinks things can't get any worse...but she's wrong (isn't she?)...
This is the second book in the series and I have to say that I enjoyed it much better than the first. The pages have been trimmed down from the first in the series and there's no extraneous information that isn't needed. What's left is a delightful, humorous tale of murder, thievery, and Alex and Nick getting a crash course in baby sitting. It's fun, rollicking, and full of mystery that never takes second place, which is exactly how a mystery should be.
Alex is trying hard not to lose her sanity while she's trying to figure out why there was a dead man in the freezer (and then wasn't) -- and figure out who the baby belongs to without social services figuring that out, and decide what to do with Marty. Alex's soft heart is tempered by her solid brainpower, and she never once gives in to hysteria or anything close to a breakdown (which might bring lesser people to the point).
Although I can't say that I like Alex's mom (too harsh, and doesn't listen to her kids), I do like Baba and the rest of the secondary characters that pepper this book, including Marty, who's actually a hoot and a half.
At any rate, I loved the mystery and how everything presented to us tied in together nicely, and the story was woven in a way that you never lose sight of one subplot in favor of a different one. Each one brings something to the story, and watching each thread slowly weave into each other was definitely worth the journey.
In the end, when the murderer is discovered, it was definitely unexpected, and the ending itself was a surprise. But the book was written well and the characters are definitely growing on me, so I will continue with this series. Recommended.
More on Dana Dratch's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/dana-dratch/
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