This book was worth waiting for on hold at the library. I quite enjoyed it and it broke me out of a cycle of rereading old favourites instead of my library books. But it was missing some je ne sais quoi that would boost it to 4 stars.
It is highly unusual for a cozy mystery. I don't think I've ever run across a cryptozoologist main character before outside of fantasy fiction. I loved that Morgan was a skeptic and insisted on empirical evidence. I think I had the outline of what was going on figured out at the two thirds mark in the novel, but that's a good long time to keep the secret going.
Cozy mysteries seem to be obliged to have a romance subplot and Ryan provides an acceptable match for Morgan. Jon Flanders, the chief of police on the island, is a decent guy with concerns and history of his own. It's Morgan Carter, the main character, who has the least plausible background. She’s from wealth, but her family used it in quirky ways. Add to that a fiancé who hid his true identity and seems likely to have murdered Morgan's parents, leaving the police to suspect Morgan herself. That's a big burden when you are attracted to a law man.
Morgan's unusual store, Odds and Ends, combines a bookstore and a curiosity shop, two rather appealing settings rolled into one. Getting Morgan to also combine monster hunting and police investigation is another twofer. I may not be sure what's missing, but there's a lot of good stuff to be found here. I will be interested in book two when it's available to see where Ryan goes with this setup.
Having vacationed in Door County, I'll have to seek out this book, if only to see if I recognize any places in it.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it!
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