Halloween Bingo 2022
I have always thought that library folk would make good investigators. We have research skills, are pretty analytical, and often have a mystery fiction habit. Plus, a lot of us are nosey and we're good at blending into the background. I think this author, a fulltime librarian, feels the same way.
I guess this would qualify as a cozy mystery, but it is missing several of the usual hallmarks of that genre. There is no romantic suspense element to the story. Greer Hogan is a widow and not looking for a new love interest. She has no pets (although she does borrow her landlord's dog occasionally). She isn't focused on home decoration or cooking either. She's working a full-time job, learning about her new community, and doing the bare minimum at home, very realistic in my experience.
Her husband's death hangs over her, making her feel guilty that she didn't go home where she might have prevented his murder. And she is starting to believe that the guy who was sentenced for the murder was truthful when he claimed Dan was unconscious but alive when he left. Greer feels guilty because while Dan was dying, she was confronting her former flame, trying to convince herself that she made the correct matrimonial choice.
This is one of the good cozies, because Greer works with the local police, not in competition with them. She does, however, strongly believe in her own research skills and her insight into the character of the first murder victim, her friend Joanna. Greer may think about ravens and crows during the course of the book, but her mind is like a magpie, collecting shiny things and putting them together. I guess all three birds are members of the very smart family of corvids!
If you like this book, may I suggest A Dark and Stormy Murder by Julia Buckley, The Readaholics and the Falcon Fiasco by Laura DiSilverio, or maybe Elementary, She Read by Vicki Delany. They are all about bookish women who get drawn into investigations. Also, I would have been quite confused about what exactly Raven's Kill was (a stream) unless I had previously read In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming. It is not a cozy mystery, but it is compelling and highly recommended.
Read to fill the Murder and Mayhem by the Book square of my bingo card.
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