First in a new series featuring California landscape architect Tory Benning!Landscape architect Tory Benning knows the lay of the land, but she’ll have to dig through the clues to unearth a killer . . .After a whirlwind romance and a glorious wedding at the luxurious Hotel Santa Sofia, Tory Benning is ready to let down her hair, slip into her dancing shoes, and celebrate—until she discovers that … celebrate—until she discovers that her newly minted husband has vanished. The police suspect cold feet and second thoughts are behind Milo’s disappearance, but Tory’s certain he’s met with foul play. And since she designed the plush resort, she knows every nook and cranny of the grounds and adjoining secret maze, and wastes no time delving into her search.
As clues begin to emerge that Milo may have taken his last breath in the maze, Tory steps up her sleuthing, even as she learns she’s the prime suspect of a cop with a chip on his shoulder and is squarely in the sights of a menacing stalker. And when a second body is found on the grounds, Tory fears she’s up against a killer determined to silence any and all who get in the way.
Not to be deterred, Tory forges ahead, navigating a case with more twists and turns than the maze itself, until the labyrinth of clues leads her to shocking revelations about her husband, her family, and the identity of a killer who’s dead set on making her the next victim . . .
About the Author:
Judith Gonda is a mystery writer and Ph.D. psychologist with a penchant for Pomeranians and puns, so it’s not surprising that psychology, Poms, and puns pop up in her amateur sleuth mysteries featuring landscape architect Tory Benning.
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Synopsis:
First in a new series featuring California landscape architect Tory Benning!
Landscape architect Tory Benning knows the lay of the land, but she’ll have to dig through the clues to unearth a killer . . .
After a whirlwind romance and a glorious wedding at the luxurious Hotel Santa Sofia, Tory Benning is ready to let down her hair, slip into her dancing shoes, and celebrate—until she discovers that her newly minted husband has vanished. The police suspect cold feet and second thoughts are behind Milo’s disappearance, but Tory’s certain he’s met with foul play. And since she designed the plush resort, she knows every nook and cranny of the grounds and adjoining secret maze, and wastes no time delving into her search.
As clues begin to emerge that Milo may have taken his last breath in the maze, Tory steps up her sleuthing, even as she learns she’s the prime suspect of a cop with a chip on his shoulder and is squarely in the sights of a menacing stalker. And when a second body is found on the grounds, Tory fears she’s up against a killer determined to silence any and all who get in the way.
Not to be deterred, Tory forges ahead, navigating a case with more twists and turns than the maze itself, until the labyrinth of clues leads her to shocking revelations about her husband, her family, and the identity of a killer who’s dead set on making her the next victim . . . (Goodreads)
Review:
The characters are well developed and well rounded. Tory loses her husband shortly after they are married. She decides that she has to help figure out the killer, so with the help of her friend, Ashley, that is what she tries to do. You could tell that Tory felt bad, but I did not think that her reaction was very realistic. If that had been me, I would have been incapacitated. But Tori was able to put that beside and get on with her life. That is only my opinion and other readers may not agree with me. Adrian, one of the police involved in the case, seems like a good guy. And Ernie Gomez, another officer that is involved, is a jerk and I dislike him greatly.
The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and the descriptions pulled me into the story from the beginning. The writing style flows smoothly and the book is an easy read. I thought that the mystery was well plotted and there were enough twists and turns and red herrings thrown in, and it was not easily solved.
I really like the premise of the book and the fact that the Secret Maze exists. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series and finding out what is in store for Tory.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher, Beyond The Page Publishing, and NetGalley, which I greatly appreciate.
This is a story about the Benning family. They own a landscaping business which sounds fun except when it isn’t. In this story Tory and family have some great losses they have to deal with. There are also some surprise visitors along the way. The story line is good and I loved the characters. Well, some more than others. I enjoyed going along with Tory, Ashley, Adrian and Jake as they work through the maze of problems and clues. This is my first book by Judith Gonda, but I hope to read more in the future. I won this book in a contest from Lori and Escape with Dollycas. My opinion is my own.
small-town, law-enforcement, amateur-sleuth, mystery, cozy-mystery
Newly married and possibly widowed within an hour merely weeks after her athletic father drowning leaves landscape architect Tory a hot mess. She has a long history with her best friend and also with the local police detective, but incontrovertible evidence is severely lacking so it has to be investigated as a missing person case by a skeptical department. Let the sleuthing begin! I loved the characters, plot development and twists, and even the red herrings!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Beyond the Page Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you!
Murder in the Secret Maze by Judith Gonda is a story filled with so much mystery that makes it seem like Tory’s life is a soap opera coming to life.
Can Tory connect all these murders that are happening in her family?
Tory Benning
Tory Benning is the new president of her family’s landscaping business, Benning Brothers. We start with her wedding then the ultimate mystery of what could have happened to Milo. Well, that leads our girl to become a sleuth trying to figure out what happened to her husband, and then it just spiraled. Into something that I don’t even think that Tory thought it would. What I like about Tory is that she staid faithful, knowing that Milo couldn’t be this evil person that everyone is making him out to be. Another thing that I like about her is Tory’s conversations with the police.
The Mystery
The mystery in this book starts with what happened to her husband, Milo, on their wedding day. We also find out about her dad being killed when she was dating Milo, and that leads the investigation to a new turn for the sleuth. Tory uncovers a lot about what her family has covered up. I had a hard time figuring this one out since I fell for one of the red herrings in here. The one thing I feel sad for Tory is dealing with that cop who just won’t let go of what happened back in middle school between the two of them.
Five Stars
Murder in the Secret Maze by Judith Gonda is a big twisty maze of figuring out who could have had the most motive for killing some of the people that Tory knows. It was an entertaining book, and I can’t wait to find out what Tory will get caught up in next. I am giving this book five stars and recommending it to all the cozy mystery readers.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Great Escapes Book Tours. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Murder in the Secret Maze by Judith Gonda.
Anyways, until next time,
Karen the Baroness
If you would like to see other reviews like this one, check out BaronessBookTrove.com.
Tory has just gotten married to the love of her life. It should be the happiest day of her life, but her new husband Milo has disappeared. They didn’t even get to start their life together. Tory is afraid that she might be the chief suspect. She is afraid so might be arrested at any time. Along her best friend, she decides to find out what happened. This is a fun who-dunnit. The girls find clues but work closes with Adrian, Ashley’s crush. I like that they are smart and don’t feel they know more than the police. There are plenty of suspects. This is easy to read, but it kept me turning the pages. Very enjoyable.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and offer my honest opinion on this book.
This is the first in a new cozy series and it’s off to a very good start. Tory is a landscape architect and this is her wedding day. The day already has a cloud over it as her father isn’t there to walk her down the aisle, having died not long ago in an accident. Milo, her husband to be, sounds like a great guy and there seems to be a lovely wedding and happy married life for Tory and Milo. The wedding does, indeed, go off without a hitch and everybody is preparing to start the party to celebrate the new couple. Time passes and the question on everyone’s mind is where is the groom? If he didn’t want to be married, well, he would have left her standing at the alter. Last time she spoke to him, all was well.
The police are called to the venue, the search begins and some suspicion lands on Tory.
For a cozy this first in series had everything that I expect – believable characters, interesting setting, a crime at the beginning and enough twists, turns and red herrings to keep me engaged. Plus, I learned about the landscaping business. I will be looking forward to the next in the series.
California, Landscaping, and Murder!
This is an excellent cozy mystery. Our heroine is in charge of a family owed landscape and design firm in a fictitious southern California coastal town. The story includes everything one associates with southern California including wildfires and water conserving landscape design. The story line in exceptionally cool. Unlike many cozy mysteries, this one does not get obnoxiously detailed about food, wine, pastry, clothing, exercise or pets – but they are all in there. The final reveal was unexpected and actually fit with all of the clues. I will enjoy reading more of this author’s work, especially the rest of this series. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.
This is an interesting start to a cozy mystery series. The main character Tory is intelligent and creative. This being the first book in the series, we are given Tory’s backstory. This backstory is a little much and slows down the storyline. The mystery itself has plenty of twists and turns and kept me guessing whodunit. I look forward to seeing how this series develops.
All thoughts and opinions are my own, and in no way, I have been influenced by anyone.
3 1/2 Stars
Tory Benning is part of the family that own’s a California landscaping company. On the day she marries her husband, Milo, after a short, whirlwind courtship, he disappears. After a brief text to Tory, Milo misses his and Tory’s wedding reception. His car is missing and phones calls go right to voicemail. A cop with a vendetta against Tory tosses her concerns aside and chalks Milo’s disappearance up to cold feet. Tory is sure Milo didn’t disappear on his own accord. Clues eventually start emerging inside the maze on the luxury hotel’s property where the wedding was held, confirming Tory’s suspicions. Milo didn’t get cold feet and just leave her minutes after the wedding ceremony.
Even as her worst fears are coming true, the cop with the vendetta is determined to pin the mysterious and violent disappearance of Milo on Tory. When the body of a second person is found in the maze, Tory knows What follows is a murder mystery so tangled up it makes the secret maze look like a run in the park. As Tory and her friends unravel the clues, Tory discovers shocking information about every facet of her life, and they all boil down to desperation and greed. Now, Tory just has to stay alive while pinpointing exactly what happened and by whom.
The author created a diverse cast of characters and several viable suspects. I found all of the characters believable for the most part. They worked will together and were able to realistically investigate the clues. I enjoyed the interactions between Tory and her family and friends. I did find Tory’s lack of emotions throughout the book to be pretty off-putting, however. Her ability to hunt down clues, examine them, and still be able to go to work, and act normal just didn’t sit quite right. I realize people deal with grief in their own way but Tory was stony and didn’t show any emotions of loss of sadness. I didn’t find her character believable in that regard.
Despite the lack of the appropriately grieving widow aspect of Tory’s character, I enjoyed Murder in the Secret Maze. The mystery was intriguing and, although I suspected who the murderer was, the motives behind everything were shocking and a complete surprise. The author did an amazing job weaving together this cozy mystery. The book was fast-paced, easy to follow, and full of twists and turns. There is a great foundation for this series and I look forward to the next book.
I was provided a copy of this book to review.
Dollycas’s Thoughts –
Shortly after the wedding in the idyllic garden at the Hotel Santa Sofia that was designed by the bride, her groom goes missing. Many suspect the had second thoughts but bride Tory Benning knows it is something more nefarious. The wonderful garden grounds of the hotel also include a secret maze and that is where Tory begins her search. Clues appear to show her husband may have lost his life there. When a second body is found Tory knows she is on the right track but she may lose her own life as she continues down the deadly path.
_________
This story starts immediately with the missing groom and tells us Milo’s and Tory had a whirlwind romance. I really wish we could have gotten to know more about Milo in advance so we could have been more invested in his life. I had issues with Tory as well. Her reactions just seemed off to me. Yes, she was upset, but not upset in a way that she lost the love of her life. She didn’t rush into the reception and ask for help or even explain what was going on. Instead, she grabs her best friend and starts her own investigation. She makes some scary discoveries and still hesitated to call the police. I wish it would have been her best friend as the lead sleuth, so I immediately had to suspend reality to continue reading because Tory’s actions and reactions were just so off for a woman’s who just lost her husband and her father just a couple of weeks earlier.
Ms. Gonda did offer a vast variety of suspects including Tory. There were plenty of twists with two officers running their own investigations. Sergeant Adrian Ramirez is working with Tory while Sergeant Ernie Gomez thinks Tory is the guilty party. There is also a Private Investigator involved which adds to the diversion and drama. Romantic tension between him and Tory was evident but also felt off to me, just too soon. The investigations play out over a longer period of time than I am used to but a push by Tory starts to things moving again.
I think Tory would be a great protagonist and I liked the way she teamed up with her friend Ashley. This time the case was just too close and too personal. Had they been guests at the wedding or bridesmaids I think this story would have worked much better.
I do love that Tory is a Landscape Architect and the garden she created at Hotel Santa Sofia sounds like a marvelous venue. She is very creative and smart which will play very well in upcoming stories and investigations. I also loved that Tory has a Pomeranian, Iris that was even included in her wedding.
This story, in my opinion, has a few missteps, but it has good bones and it is well written with a lot of good ideas, maybe just too many for the first book in the series. I am interested to see where Ms. Gorda takes her characters next.
Murder in the Secret Maze by Judith Gonda has Tory Benning marrying Milo Spinelli at the Hotel Santa Sofia. After the ceremony, Tory heads off to change into her dancing dress and shoes. She returns to enter the reception with Milo, but no one can find the groom. It is soon apparent that something has gone awry. Tory with her best friend, Ashley begin searching for Milo. Some believe that Milo changed his mind and took off. Tory believes her hubby is the victim of foul play after finding disturbing clues in the secret maze she designed for the hotel. After a month, the police have made no progress, so Tory decides to take matters into her hands. At a fundraiser at the hotel, Tory speaks with a fortune teller who suggests she might find answers in the secret maze. When Tory goes to search, she finds the fortune teller on the ground with a knife to her chest. Tory knows she needs to work quickly, or she could be the next victim. Murder in the Secret Maze is the debut of A Tory Benning Mystery series. Tory Benning is a landscape designer working at her families’ firm. She lost her father two weeks prior to a strange accident, but Milo felt her father would want them to go through with the nuptials. The book opens with Milo missing and Tory posting a notice about the incident on Instagram. I wish we could have met Milo before he was murdered. I would have liked to see Tory and Milo together (to understand their relationship and how they felt about each other). I was also baffled as to why Tory did not grieve for her father or her groom. The emotion was not there. However, I could tell how much she loved her Pomeranian, Iris. Murder in the Secret Maze has a multifaceted mystery. There is family drama, secrets, good clues and unexpected revelations. There are numerous suspects, speculation and misdirection. I did, though, find it a cinch to identify the guilty party and I was left with unanswered questions at the end of the book. I was confused about the police investigation. Sergeant Adrian Ramirez is who Tory dealt with regarding Milo’s disappearance. But then we have Sergeant Ernie Gomez conducting his own investigation. He hounds Tory because he believes she is the guilty party. I did not like Ernie and wish he had been eliminated from the story. We also have Jake Logan, a private investigator working for the insurance company. There are sparks between Tory and Jake which I found odd since her husband was just murdered (too soon to flirt or think about a new relationship). Murder in the Secret Maze contained good writing with varied pacing. I liked that Tory and her best friend Ashley are spunky women. They are careful investigators which I appreciated. I also liked Tory’s unique profession and the information about water conservation landscaping. This is a good beginning for Judith Gonda. Murder in the Secret Maze is a multidimensional cozy mystery with wedding woes, a mysterious maze, curious clues, a perky Pomeranian, lush landscapes and a perplexing puzzle.
I really wanted to like this book. I feel like lately I have been disappointed in the cozy mystery books that I have been reading so I was hoping this one would turn the tide. Sadly, for me, it didn’t. The author has a good writing style and the book flowed. The mystery was decent and there were enough twists and turns to keep me guessing. Where the book lost me was the characters and the approach. This is the first book in a new series for this author. For most of us, the usual criticism of first books in series is that they provide too much background on the characters and it bogs down the book. That is not the case here. The book starts out with the murder. Unfortunately, the character that is murdered is the groom. We don’t get a chance to know who he is or really who the main character is before Tory is suddenly a widow. For me, it felt like the story opened at least 1/3 of what would be a normal book. Because I didn’t get the chance to know Milo and Tory as a couple, I couldn’t really connect with her and her struggle to find out what happened to him. There are some other plot twists that unfold and at times it just felt like there was too much going on for me without any historical context or even basic understanding of who these characters are. I think if the author had just developed the characters a little more first, then moved on to the disappearance/murder, the book would not have felt so disjointed to me.
I voluntarily read a digital advanced review copy of this book, which was provided to me by the publisher through Netgalley.