Gracie Andersen’s friend, Marci is opening The Mistletoe Bed-and-Breakfast after months of restoring the crumbling Victorian estate outside of the Western New York village. The grim history has captured the interest of the travel world and local residents. The house begins to reveal its macabre past on the cusp of the B & B’s opening, enmeshing Gracie and her husband, Marc into investigating … investigating crimes both past and present. Does evil still lurk under the Mistletoe?
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Disjointed, an abundance of irrelevant nonsense, a less than satisfactory conclusion, all tied together by an array of mostly implausible characters.
I really enjoyed this book!
The Victorian mansion that centers this story has quite a checkered past. In the 1890s, when spiritualism was all the rage, the family that lived there hosted seances. And five people had mysteriously disappeared from the site. Now Marci has renovated the house and plans to open the house as a high-end bed and breakfast. But at the final stage of construction, three skeletons are discovered in the cellar; shortly thereafter five gravestones are discovered in the forest behind the house. Despite the rumors of ghosts and hauntings, Marci decides to go ahead with her soft opening, only to have two murders committed! This book is charming and fast paced, with just the right amount of mystery. The characters enhance the book.
The Mistletoe Murders
A Gracie Andersen Mystery #6
Laurinda Wallace
Nov 2018, 202 pages
Cozy mystery
Book Bub
The cover was seasonally appropriate, but not totally exciting for me. I haven’t read any of the other books in this series, so I don’t know what the typical cover looks like. I’m sure they’re a bit more exciting.
The story was good enough to catch me up and draw me along until the end before I knew what might be missing. In other words, It was good enough for me not to nitpick as I went along and I had to think about it to find any real faults with it.
The characters were pretty good. Gracie, Marc, and Marci were, of course, the most fleshed-out of the characters as they were the primary ones. Marci’s trying to open a travel-themed B and B. Gracie and Marc get caught up in solving the mayhem that strikes when Marci invites the top travel world’s celebrities to view her opening. Of course, there are all sorts of secrets among the group of celebrities that start being revealed once they all arrive and rubbing elbows. The spite and venom flow along with the champagne right from the beginning no matter how polite they appear to be. The author added in all those little quirks that bring characters to life and give them personalities, that make them real. The dialogue was great. The pace was brisk and the action just flowed. I think I may need to read more in this series. Recommended. Happy Holidays!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
good read
Once again, a book which would lead readers to believe that small towns are full of murderers. I’m nervous–I live in a small community!
Enjoyed the series and will miss the characters! Quick read.
A little different not scary.
Mystery
Grace’s friend Marci is opening the Mistletoe bed and breakfast after months of restoring the crumbling Victorian estate outside the western New York village. The grim history captured the interest of the travel world and local residents. The house begins to reveal its macabre past on the cusp of the B&B’s opening, enmeshing Grace and her husband, Marc, into investigating crimes both past and present. We will learn if still lurks under the Mistletoe. – I did not complete this book. It was boring, and I quit reading after about half of it.
Loved it!
I didn’t like it at all. Too many characters
Meh, couldn’t get involved, and the mystery seemed to wrap up all of a sudden at the end
I really hate that this was such a disappointing book. The storyline never really made sense, the characters were not fleshed out, and to be honest….just a little boring.
I felt there were “too many threads” trying to be woven together–too many ‘balls in the air’. I liked the 3 main characters, but so many in the supporting cast, and that diluted the story. I was very disappointed in the ending: I found it hard to believe someone who had invested so much energy, money, and time would walk away after just one, albeit lousy, weekend. And turn it over to pastors& wives and foster kids–?! Just not realistic.
I found it a little hard to follow. It was ok.
Kept my interest. Tied up all the loose ends.
Really enjoyed this book. The two stories happening simultaneously really kept the action. I really enjoyed this story and can’t wait to read the next one.
I have not read any of the previous Gracie Andersen mysteries, so I didn’t know what to expect.
The story was mediocre and a pet peeve of mine is failing to remember what the names are. Two horses were introduced named Holmes and Watson. Later one was Sherlock. If you bother naming them, remember them.
Another point: there was a power outage in the story. Miraculously, coffee and food got prepared (could have been a gas stove), but later they heated cups of water in the microwave (stated specifically).
Too many subplots going on at once.