Janet Finsilver's Murder at Redwood Cove

You should be proud of me.

I started to read the ARC I received from NetGalley of Janet Finsilver's Murder at Redwood Cove on Tuesday morning and tossed together my blip from it for Teaser Tuesday. I read off and on during the day, during the entire bus commute in to work, and throughout MOST of my work shift. I just didn't want to stop because it was THAT GOOD.

(available to pre-order now at Amazon for an October 13th release!)

I did stop, however. 

I stopped in order to get my son off the school bus and head out to grab dinner with him & his father.

(I did read a little in the car on the way home, though.) 

I stopped when we got home in order to fill out the pile of emergency contact forms and permission slips that came home on the first day of 4th grade before I dug into my food.

(I did read while I ate, though.  The other two were tied up watching some "boy" show on tv.)

I stopped in order to get a little bit of sleep before having to head to work.

(Okay ... that was only because I passed out in bed with the phone in my hand.)

I stopped once AT work to actually DO work.

(This part is what should impress you because the work I did I COULD have put off.)

I didn't want to stop.

The book is the first in a new cozy mystery series starring Kelly Jackson. Kelly works for a resort company and has been sent to a coastal Northern California town to oversee the management of a bed & breakfast whose previous manager, Bob Phillips, had recently been found dead at the bottom of a cliff. It's her first real job in her new position as an "executive administrator" for the company and she really hopes that it goes well. It's her fourth job in three years -- not counting the time spent working at the family ranch.

Shortly after she arrives at the bed & breakfast she overhears talk that Bob's fall may not have been an accident at all. A group of senior citizens in town seem to believe that he was murdered.

Now, this group of seniors is one of my favorite parts of the book. They call themselves the Silver Sentinels and they're like a geriatric Scooby Gang (I would peg Ivan as Scooby, personally). Bob was a member and supporter of their crime-fighting efforts -- helping the local law enforcement and wildlife agencies tackle bad guys like pickpockets and poachers. Some in the town see them as an asset. Some see them as a group of bored old people. Kelly takes a liking to the group instantly and agrees to help them look into their suspicions.

In just a short amount of time Kelly comes to really care about the bed & breakfast and the people who surround it. She wants it to go well. She wants the upcoming Taste of Chocolate and Wine Festival to go well. She wants to find out what really happened to Bob.

Yes, this is a "cozy" mystery so even though there's murder and mayhem and more, it's not graphic and gorey. I did, however, almost throw my phone up against the wall in horror at the end of Chapter 16. I warn you now. 

Don't do it. 

It'll be okay. At least, okay-ish.

Another potential book/phone/tablet throwing moment or two come up but ... I'll let you find them for yourself.

Of course, the mysteries are all solved by the end. I really expected the guilty party to exclaim that they would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling old people. I had my suspicions pretty early on with nothing to go on but a gut feeling. I was horribly wrong which pretty much bummed me out. I still don't like the character that I thought was guilty, though. Sooner or later I'll catch them .... maybe in June 2016 when the second book comes out!