After their (early?) retirement from their real estate business Daphne Jones became a traveling wedding celebrant. She joins together in matrimony. And she does that traveling from town to town with her husband and a caravan called Bluebell.

The wedding Daphne is booked for in Little Bridges gives her bad vibes. Persons in the wedding party are unkind to her and each other, the groom makes a crude comment to the bride during the ceremony and the family forgot to set up a table to sign the marriage certificate (or Daphne forgot to mention that they should). To top it off, the groom is killed before the newly weds have even had their first dance.

Certain that she has useful insights, Daphne is quite upset that the police don’t base their investigative decisions on her witness statement. So Daphne decides she must investigate herself. She’ll show them.

I don’t like Daphne. Her husband John is infatuated with her, though, and so is the author. Many words are used to describe how kind, emphatic, resourceful and all round wonderful Daphne is. It seems, before she came to Little Bridges, Daphne has never been insulted before in her life. Here she gets called old and overweight. It is quite upsetting.

Daphne’s wonderfulness is all tell, not show. “Daphne was one of those rare humans who truly did care about other people’s feelings and put their needs before her own.” If that is the case, the story does a poor job of showing that. Daphne came across as judgmental and inconsiderate. When Bertie, the bride’s grandfather, who considering his age and his actions could be suffering some form of dementia, goes missing, Daphne doesn’t want to go looking for him because “finding a rude and grumpy man was not on her to-do list.” Not a good example of putting Bertie’s needs before her own. Later, Daphne does consider that Bertie has dementia, but her treatment of him does not improve.

Where most amateur sleuths try to talk to all the persons of interest, Daphne prefers to spend as little time in their company as she has to. Instead her investigation is based on a few overheard conversations and digging through old news papers and a genealogy website (this digging is done by John). Based on this she is certain she has worked out who and why.

With all the persons of interest gathered in one room, the police decide to indulge Daphne and let her throw her theories around. Why? When did she upgrade from meddling lady to someone that carries clout with the police?

I like the concept of a travelling celebrant that does some sleuthing on the side. But I prefer the sleuth to be less self-absorbed and more interested in the people she is working with. A celebrant comes into people’s lives at a time they are most willing to share their emotions. The celebrant would have the unique position of becoming everyone’s confidant. Sadly, that angle is not used here.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.