Dying for Strawberries by Sharon Farrow
My Rating: ★★★★
Marlee’s life is on the rise: she runs her own small business, she’s engaged, and she has the pleasure of living in her hometown once again. Just as she’s planning her future, her life is threatened when one of her friend’s husband makes it his mission to destroy her business followed by an unknown person’s attempt on her life. Things only go downhill when she discovers a dead body while searching for a missing friend. Determined to find her friend and locate the killer inhabiting her town, she puts her life on the line and discovers that everyone has a secret to hide.
I love cozy mysteries, so I was instantly drawn to this book and was intrigued by its premise. Reading about a protagonist who runs a berry-based shop sounded cute and fun, so I dove straight in and was not disappointed. The story takes place in a small town following Marlee, a woman who was once caught up in a very public murder and scandal before the story begins. One thing I love is when later events are foreshadowed early on, so this scandal foreshadows a whole new public murder mystery that Marlee will be caught up in.
While this is the opening series, there is a lot of back story that we learn about as the story progresses. I liked learning about what happened and that it didn’t feel like I missed a book. Instead, it was vital to world building and character building but also didn’t make it seem like I was being filled in on info that was learned in a previous book that doesn’t exist. It was fun learning things here and there and watching Marlee learn some of these things for the first time herself.
The mystery itself was well thought out and took many twists and turns. Marlee did make some questionable choices in her investigation, but it didn’t require me to suspend much belief to see her making these choices. It was interesting learning the secrets of various characters as she tried to mark off potential killers in her quest to clear names, find the killer, and find her missing friend.
This I was fun, and I really enjoyed it. Now that the characters and the setting has been set up, I am looking forward to seeing these characters grow and what Marlee gets up to next. I also like that there are a couple strawberry recipes at the end of the novel, which is great because now I know that there will be recipes related to the starring berry of each novel.
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