4 out of 5 stars
Ebook. 173 pages. Published December 28th 2010 by Samhain Publishing
Blurb:
Giving screwball mystery a whole deadly new meaning.
A murderous fall down icy stairs is nearly the death of Anna Hitchcock, the much-beloved American Agatha Christie and Christopher Holmes’s former mentor. Anna’s plea for him to host her annual winter writing retreat touches all Kit’s sore spots: traveling, teaching writing classes, and separation from his new lover, J.X. Moriarity.
For J.X., Kit’s cancellation of yet another romantic weekend is the death knell of a relationship that has been limping along for months. But that’s just as well, right? Kit isn’t ready for anything serious and besides, Kit owes Anna far too much to refuse.
Faster than you can say Miss Marple wears boxer shorts, Kit is snooping around Anna’s elegant, snowbound mansion in the Berkshires for clues as to who’s trying to kill her. A tough task with six amateur sleuths underfoot, six budding writers with a tangled web of dark undercurrents running among them.
Slowly, Kit gets the uneasy feeling that the secret may lie between the pages of someone’s fictional past. Unfortunately, a clever killer is one step ahead. And it may be too late for J.X. to ride to the rescue.
Warning: Contains one irascible, forty-year-old mystery writer who desperately needs to get laid, one exasperated thirty-something ex-cop only too happy to oblige, an isolated country manor that needs the thermostat cranked up, various assorted aspiring and perspiring authors, and a merciless killer who may have read one too many mystery novels.
Likes:
- That Kit is finding all of these murders away from home.
- The romantic relationship drama.
- The plot had me guessing.
- Kit’s personality.
Dislikes:
- Dissatisfied with what happened to the murderer.
I charged straight through to this book after finishing the last one only to find that Kit and J.X. were basically over. Kit’s many insecurities had once again raised their ugly heads hydra-style, causing the relationship to deflate. That put me in a bleak enough mood to enjoy the frozen, wintery setting even though I’m not a fan of the cold.
Looking into who’s trying to murder his former teacher, as well as running a writer’s workshop, gave Kit plenty to think about without dwelling on J.X. It also makes this book much fuller than the previous one. It definitely felt like there were more possible murder suspects, despite having less people around.
I liked the mystery plot much better in this book. The romance definitely felt secondary this time. It was still important, and even though this book is set three months after the first one, we got to see Kit and J.X. seriously try to make their relationship work for the first time. I thought that was masterfully done. The sex scenes really moved their relationship along, as did all the little ways Kit realized how much J.X. meant to him.
Speaking of Kit, I still love his personality. He’s got major hang-ups, but they all feel reasonable to me. He’s far from perfect, and I like that in my characters. The book made me laugh. Like this passage:
“[J.X.] scooped up Victoria practically before she hit the ground, well within the five-second rule. If she’d been a potato chip, he could have still eaten her.”
The murder plot had me guessing the entire way. There were lots of characters and incidents to act as red herrings. What made me give this book a lesser rating than the first was how the murderer was dealt with.
I will say that I like how Kit has found these murders away from home. Sometimes cozies can get a little silly with how many people are murdered in small towns. It feels a little more natural this way.
I’m raring to go read the next book in the series. Hope to see more romantic progress between J.X. and Kit!
Be sure to check out the reviews for Somebody Killed His Editor, The Boy With the Painful Tattoo, and In Other Words… Murder.
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