Fogged Inn

The cat's name is Le Roi!

Happy National Anthem Day!  We celebrate it on March 3rd because it is the day Congress made the Star-Spangled Banner our national anthem in 1931.  In 1913 the first women's suffrage march took place in Washington, D.C.  Over 8,000 women marched down Pennsylvania Avenue!  Other historic events that occurred on March 3 are . . . Anne Sullivan met her new pupil Helen Keller on this day in 1887, Florida became the 27th state of the United States in 1845, and TIME Magazine is published for the first time in 1923. 

Fogged Inn by Barbara Ross is the fourth book in A Maine Clambake Mystery series.  Julia Snowden is running a restaurant with her boyfriend, Chris Durand during the off season in Busman’s Harbor, Maine.  They serve only dinner and are running it at Gus’s (and call it Gus’s Too).  The morning after a long night Gus Farnham (the landlord) yells up the staircase about a dead stiff in the walk-in freezer (Julia lives in the apartment above the restaurant).  Julia hurries down the stairs and there is a dead main in the freezer.  They immediately call the police.  Julia wonders how the man got into the building (and scared that a killer was in the building while she was asleep).  The dead man was in the restaurant the night before sitting at the bar.  Julia remembers him leaving.  No one, though, seems to know his name.  Who is the man and why is he dead (and placed in the freezer)?  Julia sets out to find the killer (because she is curious and bored). 

Fogged Inn was not my favorite book in the series.  I did not find it good as the previous three books in the series.  There are quite a few questioning sessions (where Julia is questioning her list of suspect.  Though I do find it hard to believe that these people would talk to her willingly).   The mystery was complex (which I liked), but I did not like how Julia went about her investigation.  She was running around town like a chicken with her head cut off and jumping to the wrong conclusions.  I give Fogged Inn 3 out of 5 stars.  Something was just missing this time around.  I also found the ending to be a bit of a letdown.  Fogged Inn can be read alone, but I think readers would find it helpful to read the other books in the series.  Will I read the next book in the series?  Yes.  I hope that the quality will have improved (like the beginning of the series).

The other book in A Maine Clambake Mystery series are Clammed Up, Boiled Over, and Musseled Out.  I received a complimentary copy of Fogged Inn from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I hope all of you have a terrific Thursday!  I am off to the grocery store (unfortunately).  Enjoy the wonderful spring weather and Happy Reading!

Kris
The Avid Reader