Series: This is Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery #1.
About the author: Maddie Day is a pseudonym of Edith Maxwell. She is a talented amateur chef and holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Indiana University. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction which has appeared in a number of juried anthologies. She lives with her beau and three cats in Massachusetts. (Fantastic Fiction)
Major characters:
- Mackenzie "Mac" Almeida, bike shop owner
- Derrick Searle, Mac's half brother
- Florence "Flo" Wolanski, librarian
- Gin Malloy, candy shop owner
- Zane King, distiller
- Stephen ----, Zane's husband
- Tulia Peters, lobstah shack owner
- Norland, retired policeman
- Jake Lacey, handyman
- Tim Brunelle, Mac's boyfriend
- Orlean Brown, Mac's bike mechanic
- Suzanne Wolanski, Flo's daughter, bookstore owner
- Mysterious person #1: Wesley Farnham, wealthy visitor
- Mysterious person #2: Katherine Deloit, "blazer woman"
- Mysterious person #3: "the sad woman"
- Chief of Police Victoria Laitinen
- Detective Lincoln Haskins
members of the Cozy Capers Book Group
Locale: Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Synopsis: Mackenzie "Mac" Almeida owns a bike shop on Cape Cod. She is returning from a meeting of the Cozy Capers Book Group on a foggy night, and trips over a body - that of handyman Jake Lacey. She sees a knife in his neck, with a distinctive haft, belonging to her half-brother Derrick Searle. Derrick is nowhere to be found.
Mac had been observed in a confrontation with Lacey earlier over his work on her roof, which raises the suspicion of police chief Victoria Laitinen. Mac and the book group decide to do some investigating on their own, and share their findings with Detective Lincoln Haskins. They come up with three persons of immediate interest: Wesley Farnham, wealthy mainland apartment house owner; Katherine Deloit (a.k.a. blazer woman), and an unidentified "sad woman".
Feb 3: reading now, please check back again. .
Review: Cozy mysteries are new to me, and I enjoyed this one. I realize why. I tend to read mostly golden-age mysteries, which have a lot in common with cozies: simple plots, generally one victim, no gory wound descriptions, no bad language, no sex (a little romance is OK).
Having been to Cape Cod a number of times, I found the writing authentic as to place and characters. Mac reminds me a lot of Kinsey Millhone of the Sue Grafton alphabet series, being a minimalist single introvert living in a tiny house - in fact, she (Kinsey) is even mentioned in a meeting of the book group.
My only quibble is the rather unbelieveable coincidence that mystery woman Katherine Deloit would stop her car just within earshot of Mac, get out, and have a loud cell phone conversation which reveals a lot of information.
more to come
I see there are seven titles in this series, and I will be looking out for others on Paperback Swap.
You may also enjoy these reviews by other members of The Mystillery:
- this review by Susan Jensen on Goodreads
- this review by Tari Hann on Goodreads
- this review by Karen Baroness on Baroness' Book Trove
- this review by Traci on Title Surfing with Traci
