Terri Thayer

A decent mystery that doesn't involve a current body - rather, it involves a discovered skull that's years old, and the book waits to discover this until after page 45. The story is focused heavily on the protagonist's life and struggles, as well as the small town residents. It's entangled especially with her father, who left them when she was younger because he was gay, and his struggling business. There's also the side-story involving her mother, a woman who never quite let go of the past. The nursing home story was a little confusing and seemed to be thrown in either as a wrench to the reader guessing what's going on, or else the author was originally going to do something else with that storyline and then changed her mind.

The ending offers a convenient wrap-up, with the murderer but also with a personal problem involving a job renovation. As far as mysteries go, it's semi-decent but it's hard to feel invested. I couldn't care about the victim since I never met them, they weren't introduced until much later in the story, and the motives were all old ones that didn't become clear till the end. Hard to care much about it, other than the worrying about the protagonist's father being unreasonably indicated. Still, it's clear he would never have charges stick long since there was no evidence at all, only suspicion from a paranoid cop.

While the mystery part wasn't strong, it was intriguing how the author put so much controversy in the personal lives of the characters. As a series, this would hold promise for future installments. The writing style is well-done and focused, characterization realistic enough, but there's not much warmth here other than some brief insights into April's life. The set-up with the love interest is rather obvious from the start, and I didn't care much about what happened with it.

The townsfolk are okay - the parents are not typical, so that's a refreshing change. It was funny how everyone kept treating her differently since she had previously been living in San Francisco. She even compared it to being compared to a Martian. I also liked the author's ballsy move to throw in the husband woes - she left a bad marriage with a gambler, not something touched upon enough for this kind of story. They usually get something more direct and clean, here it was realistic without being melodramatic or wishy-washy.

Nothing original really - and stamping isn't my idea of fun for a cozy theme - but it was not a bad book. The sequels will probably be better now that the introductions are out of the way.… (altro)

There were quite a few things that I didn't like about this book. It drove me crazy - and I almost threw the book away - the way the main character allowed people to bully her around. Her sister-in-law mostly. I prefer my heroines to have a spine, thanks. I also found the true antagonism of the Sergeant towards Dewey to be not only over-the-top, but unjustifiable and completely unbelievable. Also, less angst in my cozies please.

The things I did like: I liked the quilting background, the secondary characters not acting like melodramatic asses were likeable, individual and added to the overall feel of the story. I liked the dynamic between Dewey and Buster quite a bit - it was, in fact, the only time I really liked the heroine. Dewey has potential to be a likeable main character if she grows a spine and allows the snark she shares with Buster to wash over her other relationships as well (imo).

I guessed the murderer rather early - to me there really wasn't anyone else in the running.

I'm not sure if I'll read the next in the series - I have a feeling now that we're over most of the mom-just-died family dysfunction, a lot of the things that grated on my enjoyment might not be constant themes, but I'll just have to put some time between myself and this book before deciding on whether to give the next one a go.… (altro)