Review: Fatality at the Festival by Beth Dolgner

Fatality at the Festival (Nightmare, Arizona #8)
by Beth Dolgner
narrated by Petrea Burchard

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Paranormal Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Crystals, corn dogs, and crime in Nightmare, Arizona

Olivia Kendrick is excited about Nightmare’s annual arts and crafts festival until a vendor winds up dead inside his food truck. Locals and festival artists alike disliked the corn dog seller, but who had enough motive to murder him?

The supernatural community at Nightmare Sanctuary Haunted House must pull together to help gather clues, from a siren on a spy mission to witches with connections. Even Felipe the chupacabra is sniffing for clues!

As Olivia gets closer to the truth about the murder, she also gets a cryptic clue about the whereabouts of Damien Shackleford’s missing father, Baxter. Nightmare’s favorite amateur sleuth and her paranormal friends must put the pieces together before it’s too late . . .

My Review

I received a copy through Tantor Audio and voluntarily reviewed it.

Fatality at the Festival is the eight book already in this series and I really like this series. So I was eager to dive into this eight book. This series has a new mystery in each book and there is an overarching mystery as well as character related plot lines that continue throughout the series. I always enjoy returning to Nightmare for another book.

The mystery in this one didn’t grip me as much as some of the previous books, but despite that it still kept me guessing. I kept feeling like there was something missing and then toward the end a few big clues make sure everything makes sense. I really liked the reveal and how everything fell on it’s place at the end. I liked how Olivia got involved in solving the mystery again and she has plenty of help from her friends as well.

On top of that there is some more information about Baxter that comes to light, he’s still missing, but the further the series gets the further the characters get in figuring out what happened to him. I also liked the plot line regarding Lucy and her growing powers continuing in this one as well as a new psychic who plays a role. And there are some fun parts related to other side characters as well, like Seraphina and Gunner who can’t attend the festival and how they eventually still manage bring them both a taste of the festival. There is a side character who might be getting in a new romance. And then there is Olivia and Damien’s romance that’s deepening.

I liked the festival setting and theme for this one and a big part of the story took place there. It was a fun read and I always have a great time reading about Olivia, how she solves the mystery and seeing her interact with all the side characters. The paranormal aspect is a big part of the story and is well done too. The narrator for this series is great and I really enjoy the audio versions for this series.

To summarize: This was another great read in this series. I really liked this series and I am always excited when I can listen to the next book. This mystery didn’t grip me as much as some of the others, but it kept me guessing. I felt like something was missing for the mystery clues to make sense and then some big clues toward the end make it all fall on it’s place and I liked the reveal and wrap up. There is the overarching Baxter mystery that progresses too as well as some character related plot lines that were fun to see progress. I like reading more about Olivia and her found family in this book and I look forward to the next one.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.