Title: Dead in the Water
Author: S.C. Merritt
Series: Bucket List Mysteries #1
Publisher: Sweet Southern Reads Publishing
Release Date: July 27, 2021
Pages: 164
Book Source: ARC
“They say opposites attract. The only thing these two unlikely friends seem to be a magnet for is murder.
When Maisie Mitchell sold her restaurant and retired to sunny Florida, she couldn’t wait to get out of the kitchen and do absolutely nothing except enjoy lazy days by the pool.
Thirty-five years with the Chicago Police Department was enough for detective Donna “Dot” Pinetta. She was ready to escape the daily stress of big city crime and retire under a palm tree with a tall glass of something cold and a little paper umbrella.
But, as these two friends soon find out, retirement can get a little, shall we say, tiring? Sometimes you just need a vacation from your vacation. Maisie and Dot concoct an exciting plan of hitting all the destinations on their bucket lists, but when the dead body of handsome recreation director, Mason Jacobs is discovered floating in their own little piece of paradise, chaos ensues. Maisie and Dot’s plan for adventure gets shoved to the back burner when a good friend tops the suspect list and Dot jumps back into detective mode dragging Maisie along with her.
With a millionaire, an aging beauty queen and a jealous husband among the long list of suspects, can they expose the real killer and clear their friend’s name? Or will their first road trip be to the prison on visitor’s day?” – Amazon
Kim’s Review
You know what I love so much about S.C. Merritt’s cozy mysteries…. She doesn’t rely on repetition to write a book. So many cozies have the sleuth repeating the clues over and over while they solve the mystery. And while this may be how one does solve a murder mystery, I find myself skimming if this happens too much in a book.
Add to that her well developed characters, interesting locations, and a smidge of scripture and you know you’re in for a fantastic read.
In Dead in the Water, the first book in her Bucket List Mysteries, we are introduced to a retirement village full of fun and quirky characters, along with our sleuths Maisie and Dot. Our sleuths compliment each other so well with one being more orderly and she doesn’t coddle suspects and the other being a bit more creative and gentler during the interrogations.
But even better than a village full of interesting people, Dot and Maisie have decided to buy an RV and travel to various places on their bucket lists… so you know future books are going to be filled with lots of new locations, characters, and murder suspects. And if the older women need to recharge between trips we’ll be able to catch up with the people in the retirement village. I think Merritt has a real winning idea here with being able to have so many unique locations for each book.
If you are looking for clean cozies with lots of memorable characters and riveting settings, you should give Merritt’s books a read.
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