Sunday, October 24, 2021

Chocolate Covered Murder (A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery Book 3)

Author:    Kathleen Suzette
Genre:     Mystery

Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:    9781718099005
Independently Published
162 Pages
$8.99; $2.99 Amazon
August 10, 2018

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When local businessman, Greg Richardson, is found murdered in the haunted house, the rumors of a curse on the town fly.  Can Mia Jordan squelch the rumors before the tourists get wind of them?

Mia and Officer Ethan Banks are on the case to solve the murder and they'll do everything they can to find the killer.  Mia befriends a stray black cat and the romance between Mia and Ethan is heating up.

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Mia Jordan returned home after college when she couldn't settle on what she wanted to do with her life.  Now she's living at home and once again working in her family's candy shop.  But since she's been back, there have been a couple of murders which she helped solve, and she's just starting a romance with Officer Ethan Banks, so she has that to look forward to.

She lives in Pumpkin Hollow, California, which celebrates Halloween all year round.  While there are some citizens who want it to end, the majority of those living there are happy with it, since they get a lot of business from tourists who travel there.

But once again murder rears its ugly head when local businessman Greg Richardson is found dead in the haunted house, stabbed with a spear from one of the exhibits.  With no actual suspects but plenty of rumors as to might have wanted him out of the way, Mia and Ethan set forth to find another killer -- and hope this won't hurt the town's tourism, or the killer won't strike again...

This is the third book in the series and I am reading them because I am "reading the season" as it were.  So far, this is the weakest link.  The murders are occurring a couple of weeks from each other, so it seems that every citizen in the town is either going to become a victim or a killer.  Space them out!  It will make the series more interesting.

Also, I get that Mia and Ethan are becoming close, but in this book she's one step away from being a stalker.  You will have to read the book to understand what I am talking about, but if I were Ethan, I'd be worrying about it.

Also, police officers DO NOT allow citizens to "tag along" when they're interviewing suspects or witnesses, or investigating murder scenes.  This should have been stopped in the first book, but it wasn't.  Now she goes everywhere with him, and it's beginning to look like she's an officer, too.  Mia needs to go to the academy if she keeps this up.  Just sayin'

At any rate, this was an easy read and I liked the addition of the cat, but to keep it safe it should be made an indoor cat only.  The story line was interesting and the writing was fine, and I am glad that another issue was finally resolved.  When the killer was discovered it wasn't that much of a surprise to me, but I do read a lot of these, so there's that.  All in all, it was a quick read that can be read in a couple of hours, and I will probably read the next in the series.



More on Kathleen Suzette's Books:    https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/kathleen-suzette/

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