Jeanne Reviews: A Trip with Trouble by Diane Kelly

When Misty Murphy’s marriage ended, she decided to live her dream by purchasing a lodge in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Business has been steady, but she knows it will definitely slow in the winter months so she’s very pleased to have rented all her rooms for a week to an all-female motorcycle club. She’s a bit surprised to see what a wide variety of riders show up, from young women to grandmothers.  They’ll enjoy the fall foliage and try some of the twisty routes so beloved by bikers such as the Tail of the Dragon (318 curves in 11 miles!)

What should have been a wonderful get-away turns sour when one of the riders ends up dead.  But was it really an accident?

If you have to seriously ask yourself that question, you obviously haven’t read enough mysteries! This second in the Mountain Lodge Mystery series builds on the set-up in the first, making good use of the supporting characters we met there.  Misty is a likeable lead, and carries a lot less baggage than many cozy heroines:  her divorce was amicable, she has a good relationship with her adult sons, etc. She is also competent and organized.  I also like that she is an adult—though she does make her age (50) sometimes sound a lot older than it is. 

Kelly does a good job of giving the reader a sense of place.  She describes the setting well, name-drops and describes local attractions without sounding too much like a travel-brochure, and invokes regional delicacies (grits, biscuits and gravy, etc.) to add to the ambiance.

There’s also a hint of romance in the air as Misty and Rocky, her handyman, navigate romance as older adults.  Misty is hesitant because she doesn’t want to move out of one relationship and straight into another, even though her previous marriage had ended as friends rather than lovers. Rocky is more willing, but he also has family obligations to consider.

There are a couple of mysteries to be solved in this one, and they may or may not be related.  (No spoilers!) While I may not have been totally satisfied at some of the answers, I did like the storytelling and characters enough to give that a pass.  Animal lovers will be pleased with Rocky’s Molasses, a Bernese mountain dog.  Misty has a cat, Yeti, who takes some of the narrating chores, but is depicted as snobbish and egotistical, leaving all the charm to the canine.

Books in the series:

Getaway with Murder

A Trip with Trouble

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Batten Down the Belfry by Diane Kelly

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Batten Down the Belfry by Diane Kelly:   Reviewed by Jeanne Whitney and Buck, cousins who have gone into the house-flipping business, have taken on a new project:   an abandon...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Getaway With Murder by Diane Kelly

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Getaway With Murder by Diane Kelly:   Reviewed by Jeanne There are milestone birthdays and then there’s Misty Murphy’s birthday: as she turned fifty, she got a divorce and ...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Murder with a View by Diane Kelly (A House Flipper Mystery)

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Murder with a View by Diane Kelly (A House Flipper...:   Reviewed by Jeanne Carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin, Buck, are “flippers” who buy rundown properties and rehabilitate them to...

Jeanne Reviews: Moonshine Shack Murder by Diane Kelly

Hattie Hayes is from a long line of moonshiners, but she’s probably the first make the stuff legally.  She’s staked her savings on opening her own store selling her very own fruit-flavored moonshine in her hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee.  She’s hoping to make a really good impression, not just on the tourists but on the locals.  She wants to network with some of the other merchants and offer discounts but not everyone is receptive—especially not the owner of a bar down the street.

Hattie soon learns that it’s not easy to run your own small business. Between the light-fingered visitors and some cold shoulders from competitors, Hattie could get discouraged. On the bright side, handsome mounted policeman Marlon Landers seems to have taken a shine to her (yes, pun intended) and stops by often, much to the consternation of her grandfather.  It seems the Hayes and Landers families go way back—and on opposite sides of the law.  However, when a body turns up and the murder weapon was a jar of Hattie’s moonshine, she’s going to need all the help she can get.

Diane Kelly is a prolific cozy author, with several series to her name.  I have enjoyed her House Flipper Mystery series, so I decided to give the Southern Homebrew Mystery series a try.  She’s staying with the Tennessee setting, but moving from Nashville to Chattanooga, with many mentions of Gatlinburg (aka the Tourist Trap of the South, as it is known in some quarters.) Hattie is promoting her wares by playing on some Appalachian stereotypes (a common Gatlinburg strategy) but that’s not something I particularly care for.  I won’t go into all the pros and cons; I just tried to skim over those parts.

I also wasn’t enamored of Marlon’s referring to Hattie as “little filly” soon after meeting her.  It’s supposed to be cute because he does love his police horse.  It just seemed condescending to me, rather than affectionate though it also made me think of Dudley Do-Right.  (Rocky and Bullwinkle, anyone?)

On the up side, Kelly does a good job of plotting and creating characters.  I also love that she gives us a good sense of place. Hattie’s grandfather is a handful, but he adores his granddaughter.  Kelly is an animal person—one of her other series is called Paw Enforcement—so she knows to keep an eye on the animals, both Hattie’s cat Smoky and Officer Landers’ horse.  Hattie herself is a spunky heroine and I think there could be interesting things done with the setting and background.

As I recall, it took the second book to sell me on the House Flipper series, so I will certainly give this one another try when the second book comes out next year.  It has definite possibilities.

Titles in the series are:

The Moonshine Shack Mystery

The Proof Is in the Poison (2022)

Lesa's Book Critiques: WINNERS AND A COZIER GIVEAWAY

 Lesa's Book Critiques: WINNERS AND A COZIER GIVEAWAY

Lesa's Book Critiques: Bending the Paw by Diane Kelly

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Bending the Paw by Diane Kelly

Lesa's Book Critiques: Winners and a "Cops" Giveaway

Lesa's Book Critiques: Winners and a "Cops" Giveaway

Lesa's Book Critiques: Sandie's Corner - Dead as a Door Knocker by Diane Kelly

Lesa's Book Critiques: Sandie's Corner - Dead as a Door Knocker by Diane Kelly

Lesa's Latest Contest: Weddings Can Be Murder Giveaway

This week, I'm giving away cozy mysteries involving weddings - Maggie
McConnon's Bel, Book and Scandal & Diane Kelly's Death, Taxes and a Shot
Gun Wedding. Details on my blog at
http://www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com. Entries from the U.S. only,
please.


-- 
Lesa Holstine
lesa.holstine@gmail.com

Mystery Fanfare: Death and Taxes: Tax Day Mysteries

Mystery Fanfare: Death and Taxes: Tax Day Mysteries: The Tax Man Cometh! I've done several posts over the years about Tax Day Mysteries . Surprisingly there are many that deal with Fin...

Review: "Death, Taxes and a French Manicure: A Tara Holloway Novel" By Diane Kelly (Reviewed by Caroline Clemmons)

I am very pleased to welcome fellow Texan and author Caroline Clemmons to Kevin's Corner. Well known in the mystery and romance community, Caroline knows well what her readers want as well as what is good in the works from other authors. Hopefully, 2012 will see more reviews here from Caroline.


Review by Caroline Clemmons


Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure
A Tara Holloway Novel
By Diane Kelly




As the back copy warns, tax cheats beware. Tara Holloway is a gun carrying crack shot and she’s kicking ass in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Tara perfectly combines femininity and bulldog determination in pursuit of saving taxpayers from those who hide money offshore or under the counter. No tax cheat can fool her with a double set of books.

Tara’s boss, the Lobo, plans to retire once her amount of seized funds reaches a hundred million. The part of that Tara finds interesting is that the agent who pushes the amount to Lobo’s goal will receive a ten thousand dollar bonus.

Diane Kelly crafts a clever mystery centered around Tara’s adventures. Tara’s deadly when she’s teamed up with her regular partner, Eddie. But when Tara is temporarily teamed with DEA undercover agent Christina, the two women fuel one another’s eccentricities. The problem for Tara is whether or not the gorgeous Brent is a genuine hero worth letting her heart melt for or a sleaze she needs to send to the slammer. Diane’s excellent writing kept my opinion wavering to the end.

Let me quote a couple of passages to illustrate why I loved this book:

“When I was nine, I formed a Silly Putty pecker for my Ken doll, knowing he’d have no chance of fulfilling Barbie’s needs given the permanence of erectile dysfunction with which the toy designers of Mattel had cursed him.”

“Ever notice how rich people don’t buy things? They acquire them.”

Joe had a goofy smile, an acne-pocked face, and the worst haircut I’d ever seen. “The guy wears a mullet?
Christina nodded. “We may have to kill him.”

This book kept me laughing, guessing, and then left me smiling with a sigh once I’d closed the book. Plus, it inspired me and I invested in my own French manicure.

Caroline Clemmons (c) 2011

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Caroline Clemmons writes romance, mystery, and adventure. She and her husband live on five acres in rural North Central Texas with their menagerie of rescued pets. You can learn more about her at http://www.carolineclemmons.com and http://carolineclemmons.blogspot.com/