Since I've never met an Amanda Flower book that I didn't love, I am going to blame myself for not quite loving this one. Don't get me wrong. I didn't dislike it. I just didn't love it as expected. For whatever reason, I didn't find myself connecting to main character Darby Piper or her PI partner Tate Donovan, ie a slow start for me. I'm thinking that it's maybe because I haven't read the prior book in the series though that isn't normally an issue with Flower's series. I simply didn't feel like I knew enough about the two main characters to care. That said, I did perk up when it mentions Darby's mother is a librarian. Somehow that made her more real to me and I was intrigued enough that I will certainly read the follow up to this one, however. As usual, it is well written with an interesting setting and the potential is there for me to be hooked. After all, there's a dog and cat, always sure to lure me in.
The crime is chilling, pun intended. A wealthy doctor and skincare company owner is murdered. The weapon? A bow-and-arrow. Every guest at the party is a potential suspect, from the strangely acting younger wife to the paparazzo working undercover, so to speak, as a seater at the party. Darby and Tate were invited because of threatening notes sent to the doctor that his wife found, but she found excuses not to share them, not to mention worked against all their best efforts to survey the scene prior to the murder. Could she have somehow murdered her husband? Why is the lodge owner so very upset at the death? How about the lovely, young spokesperson the doctor was thinking of hiring to represent the skincare line rather than his wife? Or maybe one of the workers? The ex-wife? How will Gumshoe the cat like his new housemate? How thrilled is Darby when she finds out who is in charge of the investigation? What exactly is Tate's background that gave him the skill to.....oh, no, never mind. Not telling. You'll have to read the book to find out the action-packed ending. While I didn't warm to this book as much as expected, it's well written and surely others will be smitten with it faster than I did. 3.5 rounded to 4.0
Thanks #NetGalley and#HallmarkPublishing for inviting me to the lodge. I'm looking forward to spending more time with Darby and Tate and their critters so I can get more in sync with them. In the meantime, oh, those recipes. How yummy sounding.
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