Dead and Berried (Cranberry Cove #3)
written by Peg Cochran
narraed by Romy Nordlinger
My Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f
Blurb:
It’s June in Cranberry Cove, and Monica Albertson’s plan to sell cranberry relish to chain stores is taking off. The cranberry bogs are in bloom, and local beekeeper Rick Taylor and his assistant Lori Wenk are bringing in bees to pollinate the blossoms. When a fatal prick fells Lori, the buzz is that Rick is to blame.In trying to clear her friend’s name, Monica discovers that more than a few people in Cranberry Cove have felt the power of Lori’s venom, and it looks as if this time she may have agitated the hive a bit too much. With the fate of the farm on the line, Monica must get to the bottom of the crime before another victim gets stung.
My Review
I received a free audio copy from Tantor Audio and voluntarily reviewed it.
Dead and Berried is the third book in the Cranberry Cove series. I enjoyed the first 2 books and was looking forward to return to this small town for another mystery. Dead and Berried takes place during the summer. Monica gets involved in another mystery when the assistant to the beekeeper gets killed on the farm.
The mystery in this one didn’t fully grip meat the start. The whole thing with the bee stings seemed a bit weird and unnecessary especially as the police figured out it was not what killed the victim almost right away. Then as the mystery progressed and Monica delved deeper into the suspects I got more involved.
Again as with the previous book I figured out who had done it pretty early one and was convinced I was right and indeed I was. I still enjoyed seeing how Monica came to the same conclusion as I did and while I had the murdered correct it took some time to have the clues fill in the whole picture. Knowing who had done it allowed me to make more sense of the clues that came to light and that was interesting. The show down at the end felt a bit dragged out, but I was glad to see how Monica made it out of it.
One of the things I appreciated with this mystery was the way previous suspects from book 1 made another appearance in this one and again became a possible suspect here. This rarely happens in cozies and I thought it was nice to have this continuity. In fact a lot of side characters come back again in later books, sometimes with a slightly different role or a different connection or lack thereof to the mystery. It is well done and makes the town feel more like a whole and more realistic.
It is so fun to return to this small town again. I like reading about Monica, her step-brother Jeff as well as the cranberry farm. There are plenty of fun side characters in this series, from Monica’s love itnerest Greg, to Jeff’s girlfriend, the older ladies who run Gumdrops, Jeff’s mother and Monica’s stepmother Gina as well as plenty of others. I liked seeing Monica’s romance with Greg progress more in this one. This town starts feeling familiar and I like spending time there. I like the Dutch influences and this book contained mentions of Rijsttafel and Poffertjes, which was fun to read about. I also enjoyed learning more about cranberry farming and in this case what the summer work and pollinating with bees looks like. I enjoyed listening to this one and like the narrator’s style for this series.
To summarize: I had a great time listening to this one. I had a bit of trouble getting invested in the mystery at first, but I got more invested later as things progressed. I was again with absolutely certainty able to guess the murderer early on, but wasn’t sure about everything yet and I enjoyed being able to make sense of later clues that come to light better as I already knew who had done it. I enjoy reading more about Monica, seeing her interact with the side characters and this town starts feeling pretty familiar and comforting by now. I like the way side characters make appearances again in later books whether they were suspects or not and the way this adds to the strong feel of continuity. I liked reading more about the cranberry farm, seeing Monica do more baking for the farm store and the Dutch influences and mentions of some Dutch food were fun too. I enjoy listening to this series and look forward to the next book!
I’m glad this ended up being a good one for you.
It’s been an enjoyable series so far 🙂