Retro Reading: Muffin But Murder by Victoria Hamilton
The one thing I hate about reading is once I get started and if it's good, I never know when to put it down. And if I end up spending the day and half the night reading, I always feel like I've been hit by a truck the next morning.
I can't do these late nights anymore!
As the second installment begins, it's been about two weeks since Merry Wynter solved her first murder investigation and Halloween is fast approaching, only this time she's finding it hard to deal with Cranston Higgins, a man who's popped up out of nowhere claiming to be her long lost cousin and has the story to back him up.
She has her doubts about him and while she continues to flip flop about her inheritance of her uncle's upstate New York castle, her friends, model Shilo and Pish Lincoln, her financial advisor are still hanging around. The two have convinced her to throw a party for potential buyers of the castle. Even if she gets a nibble, she'll be happy.
What she's not expecting is to find a dead body in a rented coffin following the party.
And this is when it gets a little tricky, since author Victoria Hamilton ties in the first installment into this installment, which is usually unheard of in crimozies.
But while characters are tied to the first installment, the crew continues to figure out a "treasure hunt" that Merry's uncle has left behind. In the first installment, her uncle's cat, Becket, has been living in the woods for nearly a year and after "wrangling" him, they find clues in his collar, leading them into the woods.
Sheriff Virgil Grace is interested in Merry's friend Pish, since the financial advisor had been accused of sexual harassment from the victim, while he was doing research for a book he was writing. Although introduced near the end of the first book, he's still in town helping with the investigation of the local bank and he's also been working on a follow-up book regarding fraud and small banking.
The Autumn Vale Community Bank is on the verge of collapse and the residents are afraid that if the bank is shut down, the town will become a ghost town, like their neighboring town, Ridley Ridge.
As the story progresses, Merry learns more about her father's side of the family from residents of the local retirement home and documentation that librarian Hannah has found regarding the family.
And while Merry's muffin baking business isn't really mentioned a lot, she does get a phone call from a production company that wants to use the castle in an upcoming movie and Pish also suggests that she open up the castle as a short-term residence for people who want to get away from it all.
I think those will be the basis for the third installment, but I wasn't too thrilled with the ending since it advances five weeks into the future, virtually missing Thanksgiving and cutting it close to Christmas. We'll have to see how the third installment goes.
Even though I'm two books in, this has been a good series, but I was taken out of it when a lot of the first book was rehashed regarding the characters and their backstories. I also have a feeling that Merry's one time employer, supermodel Latrice will be making an appearance, and she seems like a piece of work.
Of course, these are my predictions, and we'll have to see if they come true!
And Hamilton has also included some more muffin recipes for those autumn days that'll be here before you know it.
