Stamped Out

I love this town and the fact that Bernadette is mail carrier. It just makes sens that she would know and talk to all these people. I loved meeting several of these characters and hearing about Bernadette's history. How Bernadette figured out the murderer seemed to be a little bit of a shortcut, so it took me out of the story a bit. However, who the murderer was made sense and it was really sad. I was not prepared for the secrets the murder held. That unexpected turn of events really made this book memorable.

Stamped Out is the first book in Tonya Kappes' new Mail Carrier Cozy Mystery series. The main character and amateur sleuth in this series is Bernadette Butler, widow and USPS mail carrier. Her job gives her a lot of opportunity to know the folks in Sugar Creek Gap and to keep her finger on the pulse of the goings-on in town. In this book, her friend Mac Tabor is involved in a development deal where he is going to purchase the country club. The people of Sugar Creek Gap are set against it. Mac and the country club's majority owner, Chuck Shilling, have a public throwdown over Chuck's reconsidering the deal, and when Chuck ends up dead, Mac is the prime suspect. Can Bernadette help her friend and ferret out the real killer?

As always, Ms. Kappes' writing is full of southern charm. I love that she writes genuine, relatable characters in a small town setting. I grew up in a small town in the South, and I feel like I could walk into her books and make myself at home. And as always, the story takes some twists and turns before you finally figure out whodunnit. I really like that Bernadette is a more mature sleuth. I'm getting to be a woman of a certain age, and it's lovely reading about characters in my generation.

If you like a good cozy read with lots of Southern color, Stamped Out is for you!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary advance copy of this book from the author. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books that I don't like.