My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Three (3) stars to Laura Childs‘s Egg Drop Dead, her seventh in the “Crackleberry Club” mystery series. I don’t usually read books in the middle of a series, but I won a copy of this book and decided to start midway. I will go back and read the others as it’s a fun series.
Story
Suzanne and her friends, Petra and Toni, are from the Crackleberry Club, a local shoppe full with an eatery, knitting store and a book nook. When Suzanne stumbles upon a very dead Mike Mullens, who normally provides all her dairy products, she’s shocked and feels compelled to help the local police investigate. As she investigates the widow, the sneaky horse salesman, the peculiar new dairy salesman, the autistic young man with a difficult mother and the lecherous but handsome real estate developer, she begins to put the picture together. It all culminates in a Halloween event full of fright, where even Suzanne realizes how many clues she missed along the way.
Strengths
Strong cast of characters. Good scenery. Obvious backstory we learn just enough about to entice us to read more. Fair balance of relationships and complexity among everyone.
Easy read. It took me 2 days (over a 5-day period as I couldn’t read several of them!) and the pages fly by quickly.
Suggestions
The culprit and/or motive (don’t want to spoil anything) came a little out of left field. If it’s tied together, I don’t mind, which it was — just a little too loosely this time. It was a little too predictable how it happened and I’m not sure readers would be able to figure it out on their own without pulling the proverbial rabbit from the holey hat.
I wanted to know more about the dead guy to feel a little more interest in his character. He felt a bit like just any ole’ guy that got himself killed… being a mystery buff, I’m fine with that; however, it would jump up a notch with more detail and background.
Final Thoughts
Cute series. I’ll chance a few others. I’m curious how the name Crackleberry fits in, as well as the title. It had nothing to do with the mystery as far as I can tell!
I will tell our cousin who is addicted to cozies (cozy mysteries) about this one. Hopefully, she will buy it, read it, then give it to me! Ha Ha.
It’s very cute. I think if you are interested in it, you may want to start from the beginning with the first book in the series to get to know the characters better!
This is one of those times when reading in order helps (although I didn’t either)—there’s more about the victim in at least one of the earlier books. Also, “cackleberry” is a reference to a chicken egg and eggs are the specialty of the house. The word “egg” is in all the titles.