Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsAnother Excellent Mystery
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2021
This is another excellent mystery by my favorite contemporary mystery authors. She writes mysteries that fit the cozy mystery category in that they can be read by people who dislike gratuitous sex and violence, or by preteen readers with good vocabulary. But the plots and characters have much more depth than some cozy mysteries. So you have the best of both worlds, elaborate, tightly plotted mysteries that will not offend even easily offended readers. I am only moderately easily offended, but some of my friends and family have much higher standards and I would not have any problems recommending this book to any of them.
And her plots rival the plots of many of the all time great mystery writers. The results when they are revealed at the end clearly fit the clues that have been provided throughout the story, but the results are not obvious enough for me to guess them in advance. I often reread books by this author just so that I can see how she provided enough clues for the ending to be believable without having me guess the whole answer or even most of the answer, although I occasionally guess a few small parts of the answer, which I enjoy doing.
So if you enjoy Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, Earle Stanley Gardner, and other great mystery writers, and want a change of pace from short, simple, "cozy" mysteries, but are not a fan of "horror", this is one of the best current authors that avoid both extremes.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of horror books that have nothing else going for them, which do not interest me at all, unlike well written books that have some elements of horror.
Fortunately there are lots of cozy mysteries and some of them are well written and interesting, and I have given many of them four stars and a few of them five stars, but it is really hard to write a shorter mystery extremely well, so I am delighted every time Dianne Harman releases a new mystery. I know that I am about to read an in depth novel with an intriguing story that involves a mystery that meets my high standards.
