Fifty-year-old Misty Murphy has just sent her two boys off to university, amicably divorced her husband and purchased a mountain lodge to start a new chapter in her life. But life doesn't always work out the way we want and during the stay of Misty's first group of guests a yoga instructor is found dead.
Misty is a likable person and I enjoyed seeing a middle-aged woman as the main character! But as a woman who is approaching her 50's myself, I felt Misty was written to be overly naïve and behaved and spoke much older than 50. The reader gets to know Misty well as she putters around the lodge and because we spend a lot of time in her head as she goes over and over and over the facts of the case. The other POV of the story were short chapters from Misty's cat's perspective. An odd and distracting addition and unfortunately this feline POV didn't give readers any extra information that we weren't able to gain from Misty.
The mystery takes a bit to get going, but the story has a quaint feel, a few not-quite-quirky locals, a possible love interest and a few suspects with varying degrees of culpability. The ever-so-brief tidbits of banter between Misty and Rocky were well done but I wish there were more! Like most cozy mysteries, this is a good pick for readers who prefer 'cleaner' reads (aka no sex, cursing or violence - besides a murder, of course).
I pick up a cozy mystery for its quaintness, a good whodunnit and quirky characters. This book has good atmosphere and a gaggle of culprits, but could have used a bit more tension and less time in Misty's head
Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to St Martin's Press for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
My Rating: 3 stars
Author: Diane Kelly
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: #1 in the Mountain Lodge Mystery series
Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley
Publisher: St Martin's Press
First Published: October 26, 2021
Opening Lines: I'd just finished signing the divorce
papers when my trim, tanned husband walked into
the conference room, carrying a paper cup.
Book Description from GoodReads: Getaway With Murder is the first in a brand new cozy series from Diane Kelly set in a lodge in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where secrets hide behind every hill.
As if hitting the half-century mark wasn’t enough, Misty Murphy celebrated her landmark birthday by amicably ending her marriage and investing her settlement in a dilapidated mountain lodge at the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. With the old inn teetering on both a bluff and bankruptcy, she must have lost her ever-loving mind.
Luckily, handyman Rocky Crowder has a knack for rehabbing virtual ruins and for doing it on a dime, and to Misty’s delight, the lodge is fully booked on opening night, every room filled with flexible folks who’d slipped into spandex and ascended the peak for a yoga retreat with plans to namastay for a full week. Misty and her guests are feeling zen—at least until the yoga instructor is found dead.
With a killer on the loose and the lodge’s reputation hanging in the balance, Misty must put her detective-skills to the test. Only one thing is as clear as a sunny mountain morning—she must solve the crime before the lodge ends up, once again, on the brink.
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