Happy Book Release Day! Some of the new releases include Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens, Murder at the Mushroom Festival by Janet Finsilver, Shot in the Dark by Cleo Coyle, In Prior's Wood by G.M. Malliet, The Dark Side of Town by Sasscer Hill, and The War Nurses by Lizzie Page. Nothing better than waking up with new books on my Kindle!
Murder at the Mushroom Festival by Janet Finsilver is fourth installment in A Kelly Jackson Mystery
series. Kelly Jackson, the manager of
the Redwood Cove Bed-and-Breakfast, is looking forward to the Mushroom Festival
in Redwood Cove, California. She has
agreed to let Elise Jackson teach her mushroom class in the multipurpose
room. Elise will be teaching the
participants how to identify various mushrooms, how to cook with mushrooms and
provide maps on where to find the fungi in the local area. One of the highlights of the festival is the
mushroom hunting contest. Ned Blaine,
reporter for the Redwood Cove Messenger, is attending Elise’s class and manages
to anger a few people before it disperses.
The next morning Deputy Sheriff Bill Stanton arrives to speak with
Kelly. Ned Blaine was found shot dead (I’m
so shocked) on sacred tribal land in Mallory National Park. When Daniel ends up the prime suspect, Kelly and
the sleuthing seniors known as the Silver Sentinels dig into the case. Ned was investigating illegal redwood logging
which included the stealing sinker logs and writing a book on places to locate
mushrooms in Redwood Cove. Both items stirred
up dark feelings and could have gotten Ned murdered. Someone is not happy with
Kelly’s snooping and attempts to take her out of commission. It is up to Kelly and the Silver Sentinels to
find the wrongdoer before they strike again.
Murder at the Mushroom Festival can
be read alone. Everything you need to
know about Kelly is included in Murder at the Mushroom Festival. I thought the book contained good writing and
had a steady pace. Janet Finsilver has a conversational writing style that
makes the story easy to read. I thought
the characters were well established. Kelly’s
coworkers, friends and the Silver Sentinels are friendly, welcoming
characters. They are the type of people I
would like to know and have as my friends.
I appreciate that there is a diverse group of people. I especially enjoy the younger characters as
well as the dogs. They provide levity
and humor to the story. Kelly is
friendly, caring, smart and level headed.
I like the setting of Redwood Cove.
It sounds like a great place to live with the water and forests (I have
always wanted to life in the Pacific Northwest). It was interesting to learn about
mushrooms. I had no idea there were so
many varieties and how easy it is to find them.
People do need to be careful since there are numerous poisonous
varieties (great weapon for a killer).
I would never have thought of using mushrooms in a dessert. The mystery had a couple of different
components that all come together in the end with the loose ends wrapped
up. Identifying the guilty, though, is a
piece of cake. I really like that Kelly
actively investigates. She asks clever
questions while being subtle. Kelly does
not blindly dive into dangerous situations (hooray). There are many cozy moments in the book (cooking,
chatting, mushroom hunting, cookie baking and decorating, horseback riding,
traversing down the river in a canoe) that aid in making Murder at the Mushroom Festival a delight to read. My rating for
Murder at the Mushroom Festival 4 out of 5 stars (I liked it). This is my favorite book so far in A Kelly Jackson
Mystery series.
Thank you for reading my review. I will be sharing my thoughts on A Riesling to Die by J.C. Eaton on Wednesday. I hope you will visit again. May you have a day filled with joy. Happy Reading!
Kris
The Avid Reader
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