Death Over Easy–review

This is the fifth book in the Country Store series by popular author Maddie Day aka Edith Maxwell. Country Store quickly became a favorite series of mine and I’m always anxious to read the latest addition. It’s always well-written and lots of down home Indiana fun!

The picture I chose because of Mayor Corinne and her female bluegrass group. I have no idea who this group actually is, only that it came up under free-for-use pictures.

My Goodreads review:

Death Over Easy (Country Store Mysteries #5)Death Over Easy by Maddie Day

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I know I’ve said it before but this series just gets better and better! Every time I read one, it’s like going “back home…to Indiana” and I’m not even from there! But that’s how good of a job the author does in painting the hometown feeling for the small fictional town of South Lick, IN in the very real Brown County.

Robbie Jordan and her team were gearing up for the Bluegrass Festival and all the awesome business it would bring to her little country store and restaurant–and now her B&B. She’d succeeded in turning the upstairs into three B&B rooms, which were filled for the festival. One room was her very own Italian father, Roberto, and his wife. Robbie had recently found out that she had a living father and had previously visited him and his wife in Italy (this wasn’t in one of the books, just mentioned.) When not one but two murders of locals hit the small town during the festival, Robbie hasn’t really got time for physical investigating, but she still does a lot of questioning and dutifully reports everything she finds to the detective on the case, Anne Henderson. This detective is all business but she does show appreciation for tips that Robbie passed along to her.

I saw that someone else called the showdown with the killer “heart stopping” and I do have to agree! It was definitely exciting and I just couldn’t tap that Kindle fast enough to get the pages turned! I wasn’t happy until the exact end when I read the final outcome–ahh relief that everyone was now safe and the killer or killers were put away for a long time.

It seems like we got a really good sampling of all the favorites in this book. Adele and Samuel made several appearances and Phil brought in his yummy desserts, even staying to make brownie ice cream sandwiches. We got to see a lot of Abe and Robbie together, and the mayor herself even made an appearance with her very own bluegrass band. From what I’d read of the mayor before, this really seemed out of character and I could just see her 20-old-daughter, Danna (Robbie’s employee) cringing from embarrassment, lol. The festival seemed a lot of fun when there wasn’t a murder going on and I was glad to see Robbie got her B&B up and running. I’m pretty sure there’s another book coming and as usual, I can’t wait!

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Biscuits and Slashed Browns-review

This is the fourth book in the Country Store series by Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) I really love this series since I’ve recently read the middle two books so I’d be caught up when I read this advance copy of the book. This book will release on January 30, 2018 so I’ll hold off on the Amazon review until then.

Here’s my Goodreads review:

Biscuits and Slashed Browns (Country Store Mysteries #4)Biscuits and Slashed Browns by Maddie Day

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Every time I read a new book in this series, I think it’s the best one yet. This one did not disappoint! South Lick is having a maple syrup festival and one of the judges ends up murdered so of course Robbie is going to do her best to find out what happened so that none of her friends ends up being blamed. As always she has to watch her back so the murderer doesn’t make her the next headline.

I love how Abe and Robbie’s relationship is growing. It’s refreshing that he doesn’t get on her case for investigating even though he gets worried about her. Danna was away for most of the book and I missed her fun, quirkiness but Adele was there so at least I feel like I got my share of favorite characters that I’ve grown to love. Turner is a new employee but he fits right in.

I found myself missing Octavia Slade who has been detective in the last two books but this time we have a guy who is local but back from whatever leave he was on.

Like all the books in this series, one of the ongoing themes is family and that it doesn’t always have to be people related to you to be your family. That’s one of the things I love about cozies, the warm family feeling to be had.

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When the Grits Hit the Fan–review

This is the third book in the Country Store series by Maddie Day. It was kind of fun reading about a secret tunnel in Robbie’s building. You’ll have to read it and find out where it leads!

My Goodreads review:

When the Grits Hit the Fan (Country Store Mysteries, #3)When the Grits Hit the Fan by Maddie Day

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s February and Robbie Jordan has gone three whole months without finding a body or experiencing a murder in South Lick. She’s just fine with that. Since winter started, she gave herself another day off each week and started on the demolition of the upstairs of the building she bought, hoping to someday turn it into rooms for a bed and breakfast.

But this is short-lived when she and her cyclist friend Lou find the body of a not so well liked professor and local guy named Charles. He was in the frozen lake under an ice fishing hole. Detective Octavia is back in this book as well so she’s taken over the case. Buck tried to keep Robbie up to date but there’s not a whole lot he can tell her. Robbie still investigates despite a warning note found in her barn that got broken into.

I can’t really dislike Octavia for doing her job so I wasn’t too upset to see her return. I like the turn that Robbie and Abe’s relationship has taken. I think one of my favorite parts was when Robbie got Buck to explore a secret tunnel with her. It was almost like something out of an old Nancy Drew book which Robbie and Danna talked about later.

This time I really wasn’t sure about the killer due to some clever red herrings the author put in but it was fun to see it play out. The take down was really exciting and there was some good closure to a couple of other side mysteries. Now I’m all caught up and ready for the next book in this series!

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Grilled for Murder–review

This is the second book in the Country Store series by Maddie Day. The series is set in fictional South Lick, IN which is in Brown County. It had been awhile since I read the first one so I wanted to get up to speed by the time the next one comes out in a couple of weeks.

My Goodreads review:

In anticipation of book 4 in this series, I decided to read this one and will follow up with the next one. I had read an excerpt the author provided and wanted to make sure I was completely up to date on the characters before reading the new one coming out this month.

I loved returning to South, Lick IN. It’s after Thanksgiving and people are starting to think about Christmas. One of the local girls, Erica, had returned home a few months ago so her parents threw a homecoming party at Robbie’s cafe and store. The guest of honor was not a well-liked person by anyone except her parents but quite a few people showed up for the food and festivities. Next morning, Robbie finds Erica dead by her pickle barrel.

Since there is no lack of suspects in this case, Robbie knows it will be a hard one to crack but she’s not too anxious to come face to face with another murderer. The state police are called in this time so Buck, the sheriff and sort of father figure to Robbie can’t really share all that he’d like to about the investigation so he just good-naturedly tells her to be careful and let the state people do their job.

Robbie and Jim’s relationship changes at this point but I won’t go into details. They still seem happy. Abe pitches in some more and something else is revealed about him as well.

This time I actually did guess the killer! But I credit the author for planting the right clues. It was still fun to read about the take down which was excellent. Let’s just say Robbie’s self-defense class came in handy!

Everyone gathered in the store to hear Robbie tell about it and the phone call she received was truly in the spirit of a Christmas wish coming true.