Where the Bodies Are Berried, by Peg Cochran

 

Publication November 11, 2025

Love the Christmas-y cover. It's Christmas at Sassamanash Farms and Monica is busy hosting the local animal shelter's fund raiser. Since having one's picture taken with your pet and Santa is a staple around here, I was surprised to discover it apparently isn't that widely used. There are even some live reindeer on hand. Yep, things are beginning to look a lot like Christmas....wait, I've heard that line somewhere. Grin. In any case, all is going well until, in an effort to recapture a piece of money blowing away in the wind, Monica almost stumbles over a dead body in a snow drift. Uh, oh, he's one of the shelter's biggest donors. Is there a connection?

I won't detail the plot, but will say that as mother to a month old, Teddy, Monica already has her hands full. That doesn't stop her from sleuthing, of course.  There were quite a few characters coming and going, some quirky and memorable, others seemingly just passing through. I put it on myself that I had a tough time sorting them out and, as a result, found the plot rather slow. Monica also isn't the best at seeking information via otherwise informal conversations, either, even managing to further distress the victim's wife early on. In front of friends, no less. I liked her relationship with husband and shop owner Greg but found myself not really caring what happened to her despite curiosity over the usual whodunit. The side stories were intriguing and did add to the story, some of those characters showing promise for future installments. 

So, bottom line, while I wasn't loving it, I wasn't pulled into the story, either. As noted, I'll lay some of that blame on myself and feel many will fully enjoy this one. You will learn a bit about cranberry salsa, btw, and farm life on a cranberry farm in general. Toss in little touches like needing to set up the monitor in baby Teddy's room while speaking to visitors and there is a homey feeling to the story. As for whodunit, I didn't really know until the end, so figuring that out was fun, even if the logic behind it was rather saddening. Past events do have a way of haunting our lives today. Thanks #BeyondThePage for the early visit to Cranberry Cove. Despite not quite being lured in fully this go-round, it's a place I'll happily revisit.