#Review / #Giveaway – Dead, Bath, and Beyond by Lorraine Bartlett with Laurie Cass @BerkleyMystery

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Last week I read and reviewed the previous book in this series, One Hot Murder, that had been on my To-Be-Read shelf since 2013 when it was released. Because of this the delay between books 3 and 4 was not a problem for me. I have to say it is unusual to have a break like this between books especially when it is the same publisher. This book picks up close to where the last one left off so for me the flow was still there.

Things are going well at Artisans Alley. Former detective Ray Davenport has leased a booth as he waits for his shop Wood U to be rebuilt after the fire. A beauty shop has also opened at the Alley. Her new friends, owners of the B & B, are getting ready to open but they have taken in an early guest. A guest that Katie knows quite well, her former boss, Jake. Katie worked so hard for him and he always took the credit. She wasn’t unhappy at all to leave that job and him behind when she inherited the Alley. She was not happy to see him in her neighborhood, but she didn’t even have time to find out why he was staying at the B&B because his dead body was found in a bathtub soon after he checked in. Of course, she is a suspect, they have a past and she did have a bit of a scene with him the day before, in front of plenty of witnesses.

I really enjoyed this story. I love the characters and the setting. Ms. Bartlett always delivers a top-notch mystery. She is joined this time by another wonderful storyteller in Laurie Cass, author the fun Bookmobile Cat Mysteries.

It was nice to see Ray on the outside of this police investigation and him actually being a sounding board and helping Katie with her sleuthing. They have become friends and Ray’s daughters and I are even hoping for maybe more. That was my only sticky point to this story. Katie and Andy’s romance is going nowhere. They work opposite shifts, they can’t even seem to get together for lunches because something always comes up. She lives above his pizza place so they see each other every day and she steps in to help him when he is understaffed. But they seem to just be staying together just because it is comfortable but not really any fun. I know change would probably impact her living arrangement, but a romantic triangle would sure add some spark to the story. Maybe Andy would step up and make more of an effort in the relationship. Katie does have friends but she needs a man in her life who has time for a life. Maybe in the next book we will see these relationships evolve more.

Beyond Katie’s personal life the story is pretty exciting. She does get in as usual over her head and this time almost literally. The suspense builds so that the pages start to flip pretty rapidly as we see how she is going to get herself out of the mess she got herself into.

I hope we don’t have to wait too long for the next installment of this series. I am so glad it is back!