Sunday, March 17, 2024
Monday, April 10, 2023
Thursday, February 24, 2022
Jungle Red Writers: The Perils of Pantsing, a guest blog by Maddie Day/Edith Maxwell
Saturday, November 27, 2021
Jungle Red Writers: Edith/Maddie Day is on a roll! A new cozy capers b...
Thursday, August 26, 2021
Criminal Minds: Guest Post - Edith Maxwell / Maddie Day
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Jeanne Reviews: Murder on Cape Cod by Maddie Day
Mackenzie Almeida runs Mac’s Bikes in the small seaside village of Westham, MA where she is kept busy with bicycle repairs and rentals. She usually has help from her half-brother Derrick and a couple of other people, but they are suddenly proving unreliable. Things only get worse when the local handyman meets with an accident, if once can call being stabbed to death with a fishing knife an accident. The local police certainly don’t, and they find Mac a suspicious character because she argued with Jake not long before. Mac doesn’t really have any fears they’ll try to pin the murder on her. . . but that fishing knife looks very much like one owned by her brother Derrick.
And Derrick has disappeared.
This is the
first in the Cozy Capers Book Group
Mystery series. As with a lot of
“first in series” books, a lot of ink is spent introducing characters, the
layout of the town, Mac’s pet parrot, her baker boyfriend, etc. Also as is the case with many cozy mysteries,
a colorful cast is required so Mac’s father is a minister from Cape Verde, her
mother is an astrologer, and the police detective is half Wampanoag. Brother
Derrick is a recovering alcoholic with a young daughter and Mac’s beau is a
hunky baker. As the subtitle suggests,
Mac is a member of a book group and they decide they will solve the mystery.
Day writes
well and her characters are enjoyable. The plot—well, while the murder
investigation goes on, the plot is more concerned with introducing characters
and their problems. The solution is
interesting but comes via info drops tucked in at the end rather that sprinkled
throughout the story. As my tastes run
more to the “fair play” mysteries where the reader has enough clues to solve
it, I was disappointed. Those looking
primarily for a nice visit with likeable characters will find this book to be a
treat.
The second
book in the series, Murder at the Taffy Shop is due out in March
2021. Day also writes the “Country Store
Mystery Series” set in Indiana. (The last piece of information is relevant
because I have a friend from Indiana who was interested to see there was a cozy
mystery set there.)
Monday, October 28, 2019
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Indian Spiced Roasted Potatoes
Thursday, April 04, 2019
The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: Guest Post: From Short Story to Continuing Series ...
Tuesday, April 02, 2019
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Saturday, April 09, 2016
SleuthSayers: Short Takes: The 2016 Nominees for the Best Short ...
Friday, November 06, 2015
Lesa's Latest Contest-- Autographed mystery giveaway
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Via Criminal Minds: Pantser? Plotter? Agatha Short Story Finalists Wei...
Saturday, January 04, 2014
KRL-- Short story by Edith Maxwell and more in KRL
Lorie Ham
--
mystery authors & bookstores! Ask me about it!
Mystery section in Kings River Life http://KingsRiverLife.com
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