Saturday, August 28, 2010

Murder Past Due by Miranda James




Genre: Cozy Mystery
Format: EBook

The small town of Athena, Mississippi is turned upside down when one of their own returns home for a visit. Godfrey Priest is now a bestselling author, but as arrogant and obnoxious as ever. When Priest contacts widower Charlie Harris, Charlie is more than a little surprised since Priest never wanted anything to do with him before.

Along with his Maine Coon cat, Diesel, Charlie talks to Priest and is pleased to hear the author wants to make a donation to the college library where Charlie is a part-time librarian. Not long after they meet, Priest is found dead and Charlie happens to be the one who finds the body. Now, much to the chagrin of the local police, he conducts his own investigation. Otherwise, he might find himself behind bars.

Charlie makes many discoveries along the way. His 18 year old boarder, Justin, has a few family secrets and obviously hiding something about Priest. Justin’s mother, Julia, also has some secrets and Charlie wonders if she’s protecting someone. As the investigation progresses, he learns that more than half the town wanted Priest dead but he’s still no closer to finding out who actually accomplished this deed.

This is the first book in Miranda James’ new series “Cat in the Stacks Mysteries” and she’s off to a good start. The characters still need to be developed more, but readers will adore Charlie and Diesel. The plot is classic cozy with a cast of several characters who could have committed the crime. I did figure out the culprit before the last page, but I loved finding out the ‘whys’ of it all. It’s books like this that make me remember why I love cozies so much. I’m looking forward to the second book in the series.






For reading challenges:

Cozy Mystery Reading Challenge
What An Animal Reading Challenge

1 comment:

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