Not recommended.

I was interested in the mystery: singer of a popular band dies at the beach after performing in his home town. It turns out he was suffering a debilitating disease. Actually, I was mostly interested in how he managed to dance and flirt with the doctor the night before he died. Because when the doctor gets hold of his medical records, she assess the disease has progressed so far that he had only a month left to live. My grandfather suffered from this disease, years before his death he lost the ability for coherent sentences. Doubt he flirted with the nurses of his care home a month before he passed away.

Spoiler

This mystery is barely addressed and not solved. Very unsatisfactory.

This book hit a lot of my dislikes. Cops that demand answers from witnesses (without telling them why they want to know), claim they follow the facts (and then present an assumption as fact) and overshare with the amateur sleuth. An amateur sleuth, the local doctor, that tells the cops what to investigate.

And then there is my most hated trope:

Spoiler

when the sleuth finds out who the killer is, the killer pulls a gun.

I felt antipathy towards doctor Em. She came to the village five months earlier and everyone seems to think she is the greatest. (She’s so mesmerising that everyone just glosses over the fact that there never used to be murders in the town until she came along.) She thinks she knows the towns people better than anyone and knows better than an experienced investigator how she should handle interviewing witnesses.

The author seems to have researched Scottish customs poorly. The police inspector declines a pint because she’s on duty, but orders a cider in stead, which is also an alcoholic drink. And when the inspector makes an arrest she informs the arrestee she has “the right …” British police officers - Scottish too - do not inform people of a right to remain silent. They tell them “You do not have to say anything.”

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

I had a lot of fun reading this.

Plum isn’t a very nice person, but the narrative puts her in her place. The mystery kept me guessing and Plum’s attraction to Juan Kevin was mature (realistic for an adult with some life experience).

This one didn't grab me much.

Greta is a magazine editor with no love life to speak of. Her boss (yuk) sets her up with a dating agency. It’s obvious from the start who she’s going to end up with.

Spoiler

It’s in the tagline on the cover.

So there’s no “who will she pick excitement” and the rest of the story isn’t very engaging. Greta’s bad dates are not hilarious, and the patheticness of the men is told not shown.

I don’t care about Poppy much. She’s an all knowing matron, which may have worked as a side character, but she’s a main character - a big part of the narrative is her POV. Main characters need to be rounded, Poppy’s too flat. Story would have worked better if it had been only Greta’s POV.

That said, Greta’s mum is a chicklit cliché, dropping hints that Greta must hurry to find a man and start a family. Obviously, the mum has forgotten she had a baby at age 48, so Greta’s still got a good ten years to find someone and doesn’t need her mum trying to set her up with a man that’s old enough to be her dad. At least I don’t need that. When the mum has grown up in the sixties and seventies (of last century) or later, I want them to accept and respect their daughter's independence, because that's how they raised them. And if the mum does try to set the daughter up with someone, that conversation should be met with a firm “butt out” or an update on divorce statistics (or in this case the question: “is he looking for a care-giver?”)

Greta goes for the classic made up boyfriend. Which could have been a hilarious set-up for the third act break-up. Or perhaps that’s just wishful thinking on my part, as the actual third act break-up (and the consequentual make up) were dull.

Two stars, because it should not take more than two days to read a feelgood (let alone more than two weeks).

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

This book is so, so not for me. If it were possible to give a negative rating, I would.

How can this be the 19th murder investigation for Theodosia and yet she is still a nitwit when it comes to the inner workings of murderers? Or murder investigations, for that matter. She barges in on a possible crime scene (knowingly); she contemplates witholding evidence from the police; she uses her detective boyfriend for information. He’s a spineless invertebrate for giving in to her.

Theodosia should get sued for slander. She repeats rumours as if they are fact and adds her own wild accusations. That person could be the murderer. Why? Well, they knew the victim and may not have liked them.

The plotting of the mystery is lazy. The possible suspects don’t get a good motive for murder; they get an awful personality. As if one is a substitute for the other (it is not).

The final reveal was utterly ridiculous. Even after all the ridiculousness that came before.

Very much caught the spirit of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The clues are not very obscure. I caught most of them without much effort. Harry is a pleasant and resourcefull heroine.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

For what possibly would be my last read of the year I wanted something I would like. That worked out fine.

I enjoyed the mystery, liked the characters. Plum gets the right amount of snark from the narrative; Gerald is a walking cliché; I love Lucia and Juan Kevin is possibly the best love interest in acozy mystery ever.

Loved it. Just had to continue reading rather than go to sleep.

I can even forgive a few minor issues (Scotland Yard is not the police of England).

Why oh why do I keep reading books I don’t like? Is this a naïve hope that at some point in the book the story will get better or the characters more agreeable?

I couldn’t really get into this one. For a start, there are too many characters in most scenes. Sure, there’s a wedding party of eight (and they all arrive together) and there is staff, each with different tasks, to assist the guest, but did all of these people need to be introduced (name and description of physical attributes and other tokens) in the same scene?

There’s a level of detail in the descriptions that distracts from the main action. While the police are securing the possible crime scene the narrative says:

His pale fingers had a dusting of blond hair.

It was around midnight and cloudy; how could anyone have noticed this?

Then one of the guests gets killed. And all the guests turn out to be rather unlikeable people. Jake (and his entourage) seem to be more concerned with how publicity concerning the wedding will affect his career than with the feelings of his bride. Apperently, Jake is stuck in some kind of studio system where a pregnancy could ruin his career. (He’s a man! Doing action movies. It’s not like his belly will get in the way of being kick-ass. His fan base probably does not care either.)

Rayne and Ciara want to make their ancestral home into a money maker by turning it into a wedding venue. With you on that one: castles for weddings is a romcom trope. For some reason it means the participate in all activities of the guests. Why? It’s not like the guests were impressed with having an actual Lady at their table, nor did Rayne and Ciara strike up some rapport with the guests that enabled them to snoop to solve the mystery.

For that matter, very little snooping is done. Rayne is mostly concerned with altering a wedding dress and sorting through other last minute wedding stress, and speculating about who could have killed Tiffany (and speculating about who has sexual or romantic interest in who).

The twist were the motive becomes clear was a surprise, but at the same time rather pathetic.

Spoiler

“I’ve been trying to get a divorce for years from my first wife, but she refuses to grant me one.”

In California you can get a divorce even if the other person doesn't want one. No need to ask the wife. All that is required is that he has lived in California for the last six months.

Except for the phones with camera and the mention of wifi, a lot of things made it seem like this story was set in the 1950s

Spoiler

(the studio system, the wife’s permission to get divorced).

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Very much enjoyed this story. Leans more towards novel than cozy mystery.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.