3 out of 4 stars
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At times, the police force is severely handicapped when it comes to solving mysteries. Sometimes it is difficult not to take matters into your own hands, especially when you can't ignore your intuition and your adventurous friends are more than willing to help you solve a murder case.
This is the dilemma that Zoe Marshburn faces in the novel Inn Death Do Us Part. Written by Haria Carry, this is the first book in the Beaufort Inn Mystery Series. The mystery begins when one of Zoe’s guests at her holiday inn turns up dead in the woods with a bullet hole in his chest. The local sheriff writes off his death as an accident and pins the blame on local deer hunters. However, Zoe and her friends believe that Barry Prescott was murdered. With the help of a wild heron, a few loyal dogs, and incredible computer hacking skills, they discover the culprit’s true identity. Unfortunately, they put themselves in grave danger when the murderer returns to Beaufort.
I really enjoyed this mystery story although it is not a fast-paced tale. The main characters are not professional detectives, but are older women and men who enjoy socializing and hanging out with their pets. Despite their ages and seemingly mundane lives, the author wrote distinct and lively personalities for each of them. For instance, Melissa was a sarcastic tease, Jake was the hunky boyfriend, Lee and George were the bickering spouses, and Zoe was an intuitive sleuth who loved cooking. In my opinion, the characterization was excellent.
As someone who likes nature, I liked that the setting of the story was set in a rural area. The author also incorporated animals in the story such as Gus, the wild heron, and several dogs which had a big part to play in catching the culprit. I truly believe that the author likes dogs since all of the main characters owned various breeds of dogs, took them on trips, and spent a lot of time enjoying their company.
Despite the excellent storyline and lively characters, I noticed that there were too many scenarios that involved food. Some cooking descriptions were so detailed that they almost became recipes. I understand that Zoe was someone who liked cooking, but since this did not directly correlate to the plot, fewer food scenarios would have been better. Odd expressions were also used in the book, such as ‘hot pockets are the cat’s meow,’ and ‘least until someone ponies up.’ I did not like these because they seemed out of place, almost as if the author was trying too hard to make the dialogue interesting.
I noticed a few grammatical errors, but they were mainly typos. The rating I would give to this book is 3 out of 4 stars because it contained all of the elements of a mystery story, it uniquely incorporated animals, and the characterization was outstanding. I deducted a star because of the excessive cooking scenarios and odd expressions, which in my opinion, did not improve the story in any way. This book is ideal for light reading and will mostly appeal to housewives and older women who enjoy simple mystery tales.
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Inn Death Do Us Part
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