I’ve had this in my TBR for awhile now and thought it was time to give it a read. It was a nice change to have an almost-50-year-old main character. This was first in the Ollie Stratford series by N.C. Lewis. Ollis is a widowed professor who finds herself the owner of a Texas homestead so she goes ahead and relocates.
Goodreads review:
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was an intriguing mystery that kept me guessing! I kind of had an idea of who did it but not really why so I kept thinking maybe it was someone else.
Ollie Stratford accidentally won a Texas homestead so she decided to make the best of it. Widowed and between college professor jobs, she found the place to be really run-down but had a great idea for it, an event center. At first everyone in the town seemed friendly and eager to help but after the murder of a good friend she was planning to meet back up with, someone seemed to be telling her to leave the investigation alone.
I really liked the regular characters of this town, especially Ollie’s friend Tanner’s uncle even though he wasn’t in it a whole lot. They mostly seemed like people I’d want to be friends with. I loved that the homestead came with a dog and at the end, he helped save the day along with a resident homeless guy, Simpkins. Things ended well for Ollie and I’m assuming those at fault were getting their due punishment.
There was definitely a diverse mixture of personalities and I’m anxious to return to the next book and see how Ollie is progressing with her plans for the homestead.
Cuddle Up With a Cozy Mystery 