Murder Bites
Kindle Edition, 217 pages
Published January 30th 2020 by Hollis Thatcher Press, LTD. (first published January 30th 2019)
Goodreads synopsis:
An innkeeper who reads minds. An ornery detective. And a trail of bodies. Cider Cove is the premiere destination for murder.
My name is Bizzy Baker, and I can read minds—not every mind, not every time but most of the time and believe me when I say it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
Valentine’s Day is coming right up and the Country Cottage Inn is playing host to a bevy of romantic shenanigans. The very first love-inspired event on the agenda is a night for singles to mingle. But that mass blind date with cupid goes horribly awry when one of the hosts ends up dead as a heart-shaped doornail. It certainly doesn’t make things better when I’m found holding the murder weapon—because as any good homicide detective knows, that puts me right at the top of the suspect list.
The Country Cottage Inn is known for its hospitality. Leaving can be murder.
Bizzy Baker runs the Country Cottage Inn, has the ability to pry into the darkest recesses of both the human and animal mind, and has just stumbled upon a body. With the help of her kitten, Fish, a mutt named Sherlock Bones and an ornery yet dangerously good looking homicide detective, Bizzy is determined to find the killer.
***
3.5 Stars
This is the fifth book in the Country Cottage Mysteries by Addison Moore and Bellamy Bloom.
Was this an entertaining and mad cap adventure? Yes. In some ways this was a good read. Decent. The characters are likable and fun to follow. The over-the-top-ness of it all does have its appeal for some. But in my cozy mysteries, I want to follow along with the search for the killer. And this does happen to a point. I want to be a part of the fun and in on the search. Bizzy’s mind reading super power kinda puts the kibosh on the whole cozy whodunit concept, in my opinion.
The characters in this book do a few things I would never recommend. First, the main character, Bizzy, who is familiar with dead bodies since she has solved a few murders in her day, actually picked up the murder weapon and put her fingerprints all over it. Rookie move, if you ask me. If she had been psychic, maybe she would have “known” to steer clear of a wayward gun lying on the ground. Or just using her common sense gene would have been nice enough.
The second thing I find a little odd is the fact that Bizzy can always read someone’s mind; be them animal or human. I would find this a little more believable if her mind reading had a bit of static in the connection or sometimes she hears the wrong thing instead of what the person really means. Even really good psychics are never 100 percent accurate and I would think Bizzy’s ability would fall into that realm as well. I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough when she quickly ascertained what was going on almost from the beginning. It kinda makes a book like this one you want to set aside since the main premise of a cozy is to solve the mystery along with the protagonist. To me, the mind reading bit is like cheating.
Overall an okay read. Decent. Fun to follow if you just want to meet with the characters and see what they are up to. If you really want a solid mystery to follow, you might want to look elsewhere.
I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) from the author via Booksprout in exchange for an honest review.
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