Author: Mary Angela
Genre: Mystery
Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781516110728
Lyrical Press Publishing
207 Pages
$15.95; $7.19 Amazon
November 24, 2020
⭐⭐⭐⭐
It's Memorial Day weekend in Spirit Canyon, and for Zo that means the return of summer shoppers. It also means the return of her good friend Beth, who's moved back to the area to reopen her family's premier hotel, Spirit Canyon Lodge. Beth and Zo spent many childhood summers there and Zo can't wait to reconnect and celebrate the Grand Opening. But the festivities go from bad to worse when a power outage knocks out the lights -- and morning reveals a competitor's dead body found on the premises...
Soon enough, Beth is the prime suspect in the suspicious death. Fortunately, Zo isn't afraid to put her investigative skills to work and prove her friend's innocence. To start digging for information, she appeals to Max Harrington, a local Forest Ranger and unlikely ally. Though they've argued about Happy Camper's tours, in this case they agree on one thing: Beth isn't a murderer. Stranger things have happened than their collaboration. After all, this is Spirit Canon. But as the list of suspect grows, Zo will have to keep her guard up if she doesn't want to be the next lodge guest to check out...
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Zo Jones has lived in Spirit Canyon, South Dakota for most of her life. She owns a shop called Happy Camper, which is on the first floor of a house that she lives in. She sells outdoor equipment, gifts, and rents outdoor equipment and gives hiking tours around the area, which is close to Lead and the Mount Rushmore monument. After being shuffled from foster home to foster home, her life is content, and she's in a good place. It's also about to become happier since her childhood friend Beth is moving back to Spirit Mountain -- she and her family have taken over the Spirit Canyon Lodge that was once owned by Beth's Aunt Lilly, and left to her.
But soon enough Beth's newfound happiness is clouded when a guest at the grand opening is found dead on her property. The dead woman was the owner of a rival resort, and made an offer to Beth to buyout the lodge -- once that Beth very vocally refused. With that argument as ammunition, the local sheriff, Brady Merriman, has Beth in his sight as the logical killer. The motive? $20,000 that was in Enid's possession before she was killed. Now Zo is tapped by Beth and her mother Vi to find out who the murderer is before Beth loses everything she's just put forth. Zo's unlikely ally is Forest Ranger Max Harrington, whom Zo has always been cool to, but is now decidedly warming up. Together, they plan to find out the truth. At least if Zo can stay away from Enid's killer herself...
This is the first in the series, and I wanted to give it a try. I will tell you that at first I wasn't sure, since it seemed to start out slow. So slow that I put it down several times, which isn't like me; usually I will read a book in one or two sittings. But I tired of all the descriptions of Mount Rushmore's surrounding areas and those of Spirit Canyon; I wanted to get to the heart of the matter: the mystery. (I will say that since I grew up in Minnesota, I have visited the famous monument and its surrounding area, and even though I was a preteen, I still remember the beauty. But those winters are not something I ever want to experience again! Brrr!).
Once the book got started for me, I found it interesting enough to finish quickly. There were plenty of subjects, and I even had my own ideas of who the killer was. The guests were definitely on the shady side a bit, and it seemed everyone had no problem pointing the finger at Beth. One thing I didn't care for was Brady Merriman. I was hoping he wouldn't be the 'evil nemesis,' since I so tire of those; and I even found that $100 for eight miles over the speed limit ridiculous. You wouldn't even get a ticket for that, maybe not even a warning. Plus, saying something he learned of as stolen property wouldn't hold up in a court of law, although I am not going to say what it was...
I did like that Zo's sleuthing didn't end up doing something illegal and then having to figure a way to lie herself out of the situation. She seemed smart, to an extent, but having George as an outdoor cat didn't make any sense since she stated that she got him at a shelter (which meant he had been indoors in a cage and wasn't feral); it was also cruel, as outdoor cats have a shorter life span than those kept indoors, especially in the area she lives in. I hope that she figures out a way to keep him indoors completely. I am rabid about this subject, and I won't apologize for it.
Other than that, I did like this book quite a bit. The author is obviously talented and can relate a story that has clues in it, but not overtly. They were there, and the conversations between the characters seemed relaxed and realistic.
Although I figured it out who the murderer was before Zo, I still wanted to know the reason why, and I thought it rather sad and a bit twisted, to say the least. The climax was worth reading, and a bit surprising in one part. However, the book was very good and I will continue to read this series. Recommended.
More on Mary Angela's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/mary-angela/
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