Genre: Mystery
Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496728319
Kensington Publishing
336 Pages
$15.95; $9.99 Amazon
November 24, 2020
⭐⭐⭐
The only thing widow Isabel Puddles loves as much as her hometown of Gull Harbor on the shores of Lake Michigan is cozying up to a good mystery -- but she never expected to be caught in the middle of one...
To the tourists and summer residents, Kentwater County is a picturesque community of small-town charm, fruitful farmland, and gorgeous freshwater beaches. To middle-aged widow Isabel Puddles, it's where she enjoys breakfast every morning at a local cafe′ with her childhood best friend and spends her evenings cozying up with a good book and her devoted Jack Terrier, Jackpot. In between, Isabel makes ends meet through a variety of trades -- preserving pickles, baking pies, working the counter at her cousin's hardware shop, and occasionally helping "fix-up" the hair of corpses at the local funeral parlor.
When Isabel discovers a two-inch nail embedded in the skull of Earl Jonasson, it seems the octogenarian may not have died of a stroke. His son is quickly arrested when his alibi doesn't check out. But Isabel has known Earl Jr. since they were kids and can't believe he'd murder his own father, regardless of his financial difficulties. As gossip about Earl Sr.'s land and insurance policy money starts to spread around the county, Isabel finds herself conducting her own investigation to clear her friend's name. But real detective work isn't like Jessica Fletcher's Murder She Wrote mysteries, and she's meeting dangerous suspects who don't like Isabel poking around in their business...
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I wanted to read this book because the premise sounded interesting, but the book fell a little bit short for me. First off, we certainly did meet Isabel Puddles. In fact, we learned everything about her that there is to know. How many people do you meet where they tell you there life story at the first meeting? Well, this book is much like that. In fact, so much information was given that there won't be anything left to know about her in future books (if there are any planned). It's like everything was thrown at us as fast as it could come.
I felt as if it detracted from the murder, which should have taken front and center, but didn't. It took awhile to get there, because we were learning All About Isabel. Not that this is a bad thing; it just took so long to tell it all, and the book could have been sheared down at least two dozen pages less. Yes, I get that the author wanted to give us background, which is always appreciated; but there was so much of it that I began to find Isabel the most boring woman on earth. She was constantly telling us stories that were decades old and weren't needed to tell the current tale.
That being said, I had a hard time getting into the mystery itself because of this. Every time we were given a bit of it, she started telling us another story. The murderer became apparent early on, but I was waiting to see how the sheriff and Isabel put everything together. It wasn't until the end that Isabel had her 'aha' moment, which was fine with me; and the ending brought everything together nicely. I only wish we had more to learn about Isabel, but I think we've learned it all.
More on M.V. Byrne's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/m-v-byrne/
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