cozy mystery fiction (#13 in series but can stand alone), very wholesome 30-something y.o. (frequently quilting or baking, but also works as a curator in a folk art museum and married to a police officer w/no kids) set in a small town in the central California coast area, near Cambria (where rich people go to retire), over December/Christmas 1996.

this volume in the series (the only one I've read) seems to be light on the mystery details--not only is our main character an amateur in her sleuthing, she's not even trying to solve this case, agreeing to "look into" a short list of suspects in order to pacify her boss and keep her from continuing to bug the police about a death that shows no indication of foul play. So there are some obvious threads at the start that won't get followed up on until the last half of the book, and hardcore mystery fans are likely to get impatient. It's not a particularly suspenseful or funny story, but if you like the sort of cozy narrative that follows characters around as they go about their wholesome lives (dogsitting, smoothing things over with the inlaws, helping a friend find flattering maternity clothes, organizing family gatherings), then here you go.

Picked up from Little Free Library. ( )

In reading this book, I found myself thinking "oh yeah, somebody did get killed, didn't they?"- which is not a really bad thing. Yes, the mystery is there, but on an almost secondary storyline. This story is set at Christmastime, so emotions/stresses are hightened. Fowler shows us the tangled, complex interpersonal family relationships which I found myself more interested in rather than the murder. She's very good at it. In fact, both ended up being satisfying, though as you can probably tell, I really enbraced the dense (and sometimes painful) familial bonds, which are lacking in many mysteries. ( )

I enjoy the fact that he mystery takes place through everyday life, but man did I want to slap Gabe. Also, what was the purpose of Boo? I like how in the book, Benni says, "Though I hated admitting it, I was getting attached to [Boo]." How? when? You were rarely with the dog. Overall the mystery was decent but not sure about the payoff. ( )

Great story, although the murder mystery takes a back seat in this one. Most of the time the book focuses on the fractured relationship between Benni's husband Gabe and his mother. Coming from a very vocal background, it was hard for me to understand the lack of communication, but the author does a good job making everything seem real and true. ( )

Bennie Harper has no intention of seriously investigating the death Constance Sinclair's best friend. She's too tied up in a new exhibition of 'outsider art,' scheduled to open soon at the folk museum where she is the curator. Unfortunately, her husband, the Police Chief, wants Bennie to keep Constance out of his hair and she shouldn't offend Constance, one of the museum's benefactors. Isn't this a useless waste of time? ... of course it isn't, and fans of this series will enjoy the twists and ...more Bennie Harper has no intention of seriously investigating the death Constance Sinclair's best friend. She's too tied up in a new exhibition of 'outsider art,' scheduled to open soon at the folk museum where she is the curator. Unfortunately, her husband, the Police Chief, wants Bennie to keep Constance out of his hair and she shouldn't offend Constance, one of the museum's benefactors. Isn't this a useless waste of time? ... of course it isn't, and fans of this series will enjoy the twists and turns. ( )