Retired
schoolteacher Mary McGill has helped organize the town’s
Halloween event, so is unsurprised when she sees a man in
a clown costume. Rather more surprising is that he is armed,
and although he does not shoot Mary, he has just robbed the
bank, killed a customer and wounded the police chief. With
Dan out of action and his replacement rather useless, it is
going to be up to Mary and her trusty canine sidekick, Millie,
to solve the case.
I
confess to looking forward to the next installment in this
series. I enjoy cozy mysteries and, although this one does
have the obligatory pet, it is free of superfluous romance,
crazy relations and a ditzy narrator. It ticks all the best
boxes in having a small town with secrets, amateur sleuth
who knows everybody and a good plot, although this one is
rather easy to guess.
Santa
Louisa is the sort of small town where a lot of people know
each other, but not so small that it is like a village. Mary
is on a committee that organizes events and has lived in the
town for years, so makes a believable sleuth. There are many
red herrings, including four clown costumes all made by the
murdered woman and various suspects who all have a good motive.
Mary spends the whole book detecting rather than getting sidetracked
by other things, which adds up to a good story.
As
with all series. we also get to see what the other characters
are up to and meet some new ones. There is no cliffhanger
ending necessitating purchasing the next book and no loose
ends. I don’t know about you but all this means a satisfying
read! I will be looking forward to book five.
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