I picked this up because I recently read The Maltese Falcon, which plays a small part in this novel. It was a happy connection, although this is a cozy mystery with no hint of noir and no hard-boiled investigator.
A book club investigates the death of one of their members. Not a likely scenario, requiring a very high suspension of disbelief. In real life, police do not take kindly to such shenanigans. However, the author makes this work by having the police declare the death a suicide and the book club women refuse to believe that conclusion.
As cozy mysteries go, this is one of the better ones. Unlike so many of them, there is very little discussion of cooking, household tasks, personal grooming, or detailing everyone's wardrobe. Those details may be part of everyday life, but I find them boring to read about. There is a quite a bit about the main character's event planning business, but since it is relevant to the plot, I don't begrudge the time spent on it.
Like so many cozies, there is a significant romantic element, with Amy-Faye, our narrator, being attracted to the detective involved in the case. She's a small town girl, he's a big city guy. As an event planner, she is planning her high school boyfriend's wedding, adding another complication to the equation. I find these kind of emotional entanglements equal to the mystery in terms of interest, so I'm pretty sure that I'll be reading the remaining two books in the series.
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