Murder Passes The Buck by Deb Baker

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Gertie Johnson is suspicious when her neighbor, Chester, is shot. The shooting is chalked up to a hunting accident, but Gertie isn’t having any of it. She begs Sheriff Blaze Johnson to investigate before writing this off as an accident, but he wasn’t paying any attention to her. Her own son wouldn’t listen to her! What’s a mother to do? Conduct her own investigation, of course!

Gertie rounds up her own investigative team. Her best friend Cora Mae and a local citizen Kitty who demands to be Gertie’s bodyguard. The three sixty-something women begin searching for clues and it’s not long before they realize that Gertie was right. Chester was murdered, but who would have done such a thing and why?

Blaze is still not convinced. In fact, he’s sure his mother has really lost her mind. He takes her to court to try and have her declared unfit to care for herself. Gertie isn’t taking this lightly. Between solving a murder and fighting her son in court, she has her hands full.

Gertie reminds me of Janet Evanovich’s Grandma Mazur from the Stephanie Plum series. She has spunk and doesn’t take anything from anyone, not even her own family. I was laughing out loud from page one. Deb Baker creates a very vivid picture of a backwoods community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula sprinkled with a cast of characters that are unique and fun to read about.

The mystery itself wasn’t very complex and I usually prefer more twists and turns in the books I read, but this was a light, fun read. The humor scattered throughout the book made up for it. This is the first book in Baker’s Yooper Mystery series and was a good introduction to all the characters. I will definitely read the next one, I already have it in my TBR.