Olivia wordt wakker in een vreemde kamer. Het schijnt een schrijfcliché te zijn, maar ik probeer me erover heen te zetten. Snel grabbelt ze haar spullen bij elkaar en haast zich naar een vriendin, jammerend dat haar vriend haar dit nooit vergeeft. Oké, drama queen, niet een personage waarin ik mezelf herken, maar ik probeer me erover heen te zetten.

Dan wordt de eerste flashback aangekondigd: "terwijl mijn gedachten langzaam afdwalen naar de aanleiding van onze allereerste date." Twee hoofdstukken verder op wordt de tweede flashback aangekondigd: "terwijl mijn gedachten langzaam terugschieten naar de allereerste keer dat Maarten zijn veilige armen om me heen sloeg."

Dat is exact dezelfde formulering. Had Gillian King geen redacteur die er dat even uit had kunnen halen? Of op zijn minst "langzaam terugschieten" had kunnen aanpassen. Schieten impliceert snelheid. Langzaam gebrek aan.

Ik heb het niet uitgelezen. Ik verdroeg Olivia niet meer.

Olivia liegt, veel, en niet ineens om er zelf beter van te worden (irritatie 1).

Ze is zevenentwintig en ondanks haar voordurende gelieg, nooit echt tegen de lamp gelopen. Ook heeft ze nooit geleerd dat ze soms haar leugens wat moet bijstellen (irritatie 2). Als je tegen iemand in een drukke kroeg zegt dat je al lang vrijgezel bent, kun je dat later best wat aanpassen en het omgevingslawaai de schuld van het misverstand geven.

Verder werkt Olivia bij een hip tijdschrift, maar heeft daar de meest onhippe functie. Ze wil wel meer, maar als mensen daar tegen haar zeggen dat ze geduld moet hebben, dat haar tijd echt wel komt, dan blijft ze wachten. En klagen dat het succes haar niet komt aanwaaien (irritatie 3). Als je echt wat meer wilt doen bij een tijdschrift dan tekstcorrectie, dan zul je ideeën moeten pitchen. Je moet laten zien dat je ambitie hebt, niet alleen zeggen dat je ambitie hebt.

Onsympathieke heldin, terwijl chicklits het toch vooral moeten hebben van hun sympathiek en herkenbare heldinnen. Volgens een citaat op de achterkant zal iedereen zich in Olivia herkennen. Ik herken mijzelf niet in haar Olivia, en ik vermoed dat de meeste andere vrouwen ook minder liegen en meer pro-actief zijn als ze iets willen.

I’m not sure why I requested this book. Some vague memory that the characters had been kind of sweet in the previous book.

And the cover of this book is adorable, of course.

It’s a few weeks after the events of the previous book and the town of Larkspur is coming to grips with that and with their next event: a Fall Festival to put the town on the map. That is until some acts of vandalism and a dead body ruin the day.

The description sounded interesting, but I had a hard time getting into this book. Greta I remember, and that she had two coworkers, but I forgot who’s who. The narrative is not helpful in figuring it out. At some point someone wants to talk about men and Iris pales. The other women commiserate, but Iris’ backstory is not explained. I sometimes get annoyed when there is too much exposition, but here there is too little.

Rather than do a quick recap of Iris’ misfortune at the end of the previous book, the story takes the opportunity to let Greta explain why she ran away from her previous job. Sure, the other women know what happened to Iris, but the reader doesn’t (when reading as a stand-alone) or may have only vague memories (when having read the previous book about a year ago).

It’s not just this instance: the only character that gets a bit of a backstory is Greta. It’s almost like the author doesn’t even like the other characters and they are only there for the greater glory of Greta.

I like to decide for myself who’s going to be my favourite character in a book. And Greta is not likely to be it. Despite being the author’s favourite, the show and tell don’t line up.

At one point it is mentioned that Greta isn’t reckless by nature. What is shown is that when the lights go out at a banquet, Greta takes it upon herself to search for a circuit breaker, in the dark, in a building she doesn’t know, without a flashlight and while there are people around who do know the building and/or have flashlights.

There might have been a point if Greta was one of the organisers and she felt somehow responsible, but she was a volunteer to help set up and a guest speaker. There are a few more examples where Greta acts without thinking of the consequences (which is the very definition of reckless behaviour).



Despite that Greta told detective McHenry - who she is not comfortable calling Mark, though she insists he must call her Greta - that she would not investigate, she and her two co-workers have compiled a list of three suspects:

Stewart Diddle, who was rather vocal about not liking tourists in his town;
Abby Daniels, deputy mayor, who took over the tasks of the mayor rather eagerly;
Rex Rossman, a journalist, who was invited to write about the town for a tourist magazine.

There’s also Oliver Jacobson, but despite his assertion he will ruin Ed Kennedy, owner of holiday cottages by Larkspur Lake, he’s not considered a suspect. Nor is the stranger that Greta heard arguing with the mayor.

Greta does mention that argument to detective McHenry, but rather than grill her about all the details of what she overheard and saw, they discuss why the mayor chose to ignore the fact Greta might have overheard her arguing with a person. I guess he didn’t feel comfortable slapping his notebook on the table during lunch.

By the way, using a lunch date for a witness statement? If McHenry was half the professional the narrative suggests he is the conversation following Greta’s “Do you want to grab lunch?” would have gone something like this:
“Sure.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, but if you have something important to tell me about the murder I am currently investigating, let’s step into my office first. You can tell me all about it without being interrupted by waiters or other patrons. We can grab lunch when I’m done asking questions.”

The book picks up a little in excitement in the latter quarter.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Liked Abby Timberlake from the start.

Didn't seem to take itself too seriously as a cozy. Sagged a bit towards the end.

3.5*, but rounded down because people that travel a lot don't leave all their airport tags on their luggage (it causes errors in the automated system), but in this story they conveniently did. And because a slip of the pen of the author spoiled a later 'surprise' twist.

This was fun.

The blur on the backcover is grossly misleading. Or better put: it only had the name of the main character right.

Sexist.

I had to check. This book was first published in 2003, but save for the odd mention of mobile phones it might as well have been set in 1963.

Spoiler

The reason Prue ended up in hospital is definitely 1963 not 2003.

Lois set up a cleaning business and wants to hire some staff. One of her applicants is a man. A man! Her husband says she should put him on the ‘no’ pile for that reason alone. (Pretty sure discrimination on gender is against the law too in Britain.) Surely a man cannot be a cleaner. And no one says the obvious: why not? He’s got two hands and opposable thumbs. What more do you think he needs to hold on to a duster or broom?

The story grew on me after a while (perseverance and all that), but the omniscient narrator that told me way more than Lois could ever find out, but then conveniently not tell things to create more of a mystery, did annoy at times.

As did the secret rendez-vous Lois kept having with inspector Cowgill to share information. Why not share this information over the telephone? Why share information at all? Some of the information Lois shares the police should have found out on their own.

Not a cozy and not my thing.

A very foodie cozy. The sleuthing takes a backseat to the food prep.

The day after Lucky Pie Diner owner Este March had an argument with the new produce delivery guy the man is found dead on his boat, holding a copy of Este’s invoice. Naturally, she gets the feeling she is considered a suspect. Thus she is determined to investigate herself, lest the local sheriff - a nice guy, but about as experienced in running a murder investigation as Este is - misses some vital clues.

The story is set on Split Pine, an island off the Michigan coast, where tourists are welcome March through October, but come November everyone that is not a permanent resident of the island must leave. It’s one of the many bylaws of the island that make me wonder what would happen if these were challenged in court. And since some of the bylaws don’t respect personal property or encourage some kind of monopolistic truck system, it is surprising Este doesn’t mention the bylaws have ever been challenged.

Anyway, produce guy. Rather unexpectedly Este’s regular produce guy is replaced by Jeff, who not only doesn’t deliver her order in full, he also charges twice as much for what he does deliver. No wonder Este is upset with the man.

The next morning, after Jeff is found dead, the sheriff informs her Jeff’s last stop was at her diner and there is a witness to their argument.

Here’s what’s bothering me about that: if Jeff’s last stop was at seven a.m. why did he not leave the island soon after? What kept him on the island until at least the evening? (When he was killed.) And why does Este not ask these questions as part of her investigation?

Don’t know if the sheriff is investigating that angle. Or investigating at all. Okay, quite rightly the sheriff doesn’t share the details of his investigation with Este, but town gossip also has not picked up on his investigation other than his interview with Este. So either town gossip is slacking or the sheriff is (and the way town gossip operates it’s probably the latter).

The sheriff does tell Este not to get involved in the investigation when she shares with him what she found out about her former produce guy. Uhm, no. Doing a search on the sudden disappearance of your vender is actually smart business acumen. The only link to the sheriff’s investigation is Este’s assumption that there is a link.

Decent enough cozy. Not enough viable suspects to make for an interesting mystery. Well-written though and Este is a likeable character, even if she talks about the dishes she cooks and the pies she makes too much (and seemed to have forgotten about her newly adopted cat the day the power went out).

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

I love that pretty much every scene in this book furthers the plot. Without rehashing the same details over and over.