Mei can never catch a break from mysteries! With her tea shop now open and living her dream life married to Yasahiro Suga, she’s just trying to avoid bad luck and live a normal life. But when a friend shows up asking for help with an old missing person’s case, Mei can’t resist the pull of a mystery unsolved. She knew the young woman who went missing and had always wondered what happened to her. … always wondered what happened to her. Now’s her chance to find out, even if it turns long-time Chikata residents against her.
While Mei is working at the tea shop and helping with the case, she’s also assisting her mom on the family farm. Convincing her mom to renovate the old house is not an easy task, and Mei is continually frustrated by her mom’s lack of enthusiasm for the project. Until Mei’s brother shows up and wants to buy the business out from under her, betraying Mei and Yasahiro in the process.
Can Mei find the missing woman and keep her reputation intact? And will she and Yasahiro repair their relationship with Mei’s mom before it tears their family apart?
With her head in the clouds and a taste for solving crime, you don’t want to miss Mei in The Daydreamer Detective Returns A Favor, the surprisingly rich fourth course to the Miso Cozy series of cozy mystery novels.
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Gah this was such a good book, the mystery took me completely by surprise which is rare and it was such an unique type of mystery as well. And the characters are so great to read about, I am so happy there was more Mei and Yasa scenes in this book, they are so great together. And besides the mystery there are so many other things going on, other side plot lines, relationship plot lines, the tea shop, Mei’s pregnant and a natural disaster. It was a great read.
The mystery in this one was very unique. It’s a missing persons case that Mei is digging into. Years ago a girl named Ria went missing, no one knows what happened. and that’s what made it such an interesting read, we find out more about Ria, but for a long time it stays very unsure what happened to her and very few clues pop up. It kept me reading and I wanted to know what happened to this girl.
Most cozie mysteries are very formulaic, which usually works great and I don’t mind at all, but I loved how Pajonas strays from the formule in each of the books in this series and this one might be the most unique mystery for a cozy mystery book yet. And the twist at the end totally took me by surprise. I never was quite sure who to suspect, I did suspect one person who might be involved, but I didn’t guess this. It was a great twist and I liked being surprised like that.
Another great thing about this series is the continuity. In the third book we find out Mei’s pregnant and in this book she’s still dealing with the pregnancy (and I was happy she didn’t put herself in danger too much which this mystery). The relationship with the town people, her mom and Yasahiro continues in each book. The teashop she started in last book is still there and going well. One of the side characters we met in book 3 plays an important role here as she’s the one who gets Mei invested in the mystery. And other plot lines hint back to events of earlier books. I like that and it makes it fun to read the series in order and see everything develop over the course of the series.
And in my review of book 3 I mentioned there wasn’t as much Mei and Yasahiro scenes, luckily in this book that turned around. They are happily married now and I love reading about them together. They make for such a good team. And I grew to respect Yasahiro even more in this book for how he handled the situation with Mei’s mom and how he stood of for Mei and always took her side. It was awesome.
And while this book is definitely a mystery first, there are also so many other side plot lines going on. Which are great to read about. I was curious to see how the situation with Mei’s mom would turn out. And I was scared for everyone when a natural disaster hits. There was a nice twist after that as well, which was neat. There are lots of side characters, the tea shop and more side story lines.
To summarize: this was another awesome read in this unique cozy mystery set in Japan! This might be my favorite book in the series yet. The mystery was really well done, the missing person case Mei took on was very interesting and I couldn’t wait to find out what had happened to her. And the twist at the end was great and totally not what I had expected. This series has a lot of continuity, so I would recommend reading it in order if possible. There are some great side plot lines going on as well and I liked seeing more Yasahiro and Mei in this book. They are great together and I liked how Yasahiro acted in this book, always picking Mei’s side. If you love a good mystery you don’t want to miss this series!