A quaint Vermont inn offers idyllic peace–until a body is found on the property–in this charming series debut, perfect for fans of Ellen Byron and Ellery Adams. When thirty-three-year-old Hannah Solace returns to her hometown to renovate and reopen the inn she co-owns with her sister Reggie, her mission is to give the old Victorian hotel an entirely new life. She’s even planting pollinator gardens around the inn–native flowers and fruit trees to lure honeybees and houseguests alike. Hannah’s fresh start is stymied by Reggie’s continual interference, unreliable contractors, a check-the-couch-for-coins budget, and townspeople Hannah left behind fifteen years ago. Her main source of camaraderie is Ezra Grayson, an eighty-year-old recluse who lives nearby. After an unsettling conversation with a disgruntled Ezra, Hannah is horrified to discover him dead on her property later that day. Ezra had always had plenty of people to complain about, especially locals trying to force him out of his property for its prime real estate. As buzz around town grows after his death, Hannah finds herself on the short list of suspects. Hannah starts digging and quickly discovers that secrets lurk beneath the charming surface of the town she once again calls home.
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1 primary bookHummingbird Hollow B&B Mystery is a 1-book series first released in 2024 with contributions by Ayla Rose.
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It's billed and marketed as a cozy mystery. Cute cover, B&B setting, sister relationship. The crime happens and then the mystery gets going for good–at such a pace that I was flipping pages quite quickly. However, the language kept getting worse and worse until there were four letter bombs several times near the ending, and the profanity never lets up. (Even the preacher lady, who “hates cursing,” takes pleasure in bandying about the more minor cuss of “hell.”)
As far as crime solving, the procedural part from Hannah is pretty decent, but more than once the police pop out with a convenient fact that there's no way they could have known. For example, a man is put through a chipper and pulverized, but he's positively identified in less than 24 hours. No way can a small town police force get a DNA result that fast. Also the police repeatedly blab confidential case knowledge to several other characters.
Overall, it would have been a fairly solid story if I'd been expecting a hard-boiled mystery. As it was, the over the top language and the gory turn the murders took was not what I expected as a cozy mystery reader and I won't be continuing this series.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.
