Review: Death Over Easy by Maddie Day

Posted July 31, 2018 by Lola in Coyer, Mystery, Review / 10 Comments

Review graphic

Death Over EasyDeath Over Easy (Country Store Mysteries #5)
by Maddie Day

Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Cozy Mystery

Blurb:
Restaurateur Robbie Jordan is ready for the boost in business a local music festival brings to South Lick, Indiana, but the beloved event strikes a sour note when one of the musicians is murdered . . .

June’s annual Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival in neighboring Beanblossom is always a hit for Robbie’s country store and café, Pans ‘N Pancakes. This year, Robbie is even more excited, because she’s launching a new bed and breakfast above her shop. A few festival musicians will be among Robbie’s first guests, along with her father, Roberto, and his wife, Maria. But the celebration is cut short when a performer is found choked to death by a banjo string. Now all the banjo players are featured in a different kind of lineup. To clear their names, Robbie must pair up with an unexpected partner to pick at the clues and find the plucky killer before he can conduct an encore performance . . .

My Review

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley

This series is one of my favorite cozy mystery series and it’s always a joy to return to Robbie and her country store. It’s such a comforting and happy feeling to start the next book in a series you enjoy. I like how each book in this series has some familiar elements like the store, Robbie, food and some familiar side characters that play a role each book, like Robbie’s love interest, her co-workers and some citizens of the town. And each book also has some new feature or theme. There are also some storylines that continue throughout the series which gives it a great feel of continuity.

This was another great read in this series. I was happy to be back reading about Robbie and her store. In this book she starts her B&B part above her store and I liked seeing how that worked out. Especially as the past few books have been building up toward that. Ofcourse nothing ever goes smoothly for Robbie and she lands in the middle of another mystery. Her father and his wife are visiting from Italy too, so Robbie has her hands full. This book also features a music festival that takes place close by and there are some scenes that take place there.

It was another interesting mystery in this book. I liked how it was a bit straightforward with not too many suspects, but at the same time it had some interesting twists and turns. I also liked the twist at the end as I had expected it to go another way there. I wasn’t too surprised when we discovered we the murderer was, but at the same time I wasn’t fully sure who I suspected. I didn’t really try to figure out the mystery with this one and just enjoyed following Robbie along as she pierced together the clues. It also was interesting that there was another detective on the case in this book. The end did feel a tad rushed and I felt like a few questions were left unanswered.

I liked the chance to get to now Robbie’s father and his wife a bit in this book and it was fun to see how she has reconnected with him in earlier books, but this is the first book we actually see him on the pages, which was great. It was nice to see how they interacted. Ofcouse we also see more of Dana, Turner, Abe, Buck and other familiar by now side characters. It also was interesting how we got to read a bit about Dana and her boyfriend in this book.

Another thing I really like how Robbie is a smart main character. She has a few potential dangerous things she gets involved in and every time she handles it in a smart manner. Either by passing it along to the detective on the case or by getting back up before rushing into a potential dangerous situation, which is really refreshing to read about. The bluegrass festival gave an unique touch to this book again.

To summarize: This was another fun read in this series. This is one of my favorite cozy mystery series and it’s always such a comfortable feeling picking up another book in this series. The mystery in this one was pretty interesting with some nice twist and turns. The theme for this book was a bluegrass festival that took place close by. And Robbie just opened her B&B above her store, which was fun to read about and the few hurdles she runs into. I liked how Robbie got involved in the mystery, but doesn’t rush into danger. She is smart about investigating and there’s even a scene where she gets back-up which I liked. It also was fun we got to read about Robbie her father who was visiting with his wife. All in all this continues to be a great series and I am looking forward to the next book.

4 Stars

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
B&N
Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

Tell me about a longer running series that you’re enjoying?

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10 responses to “Review: Death Over Easy by Maddie Day

  1. A lovely review – it’s always a joy to discover a great long-running series. I’ve been loving The Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennon. Hope you are having a great week, Lola:)

    • I really like spending time in and around Robbie’s store. It’s such a fun series and I am always looking forward to the next book. 13 books definitely is a long series and that’s great it’s still going strong.

    • I really like cozies, they are so much fun. Yes there are mentions of food, as she own her own café and cooks her own food daily, there are a lot of mentions of food. And there are usually some recipes form food featured in the book at the back of the book too.

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