Murder at the Mushroom Festival (A Kelly Jackson Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Setting – California
Lyrical Underground (April 17, 2018)
Paperback: 176 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1516104239
Digital ASIN: B07465HNVP

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Mushrooms, Murder and a bit of Mayhem! It’s the Week of the Mushroom and many fun events have been planned. Cooking classes and various mushroom hunting tours. Kelly Jackson, manager of the Redwood Cove Bed and Breakfast is participating in everything she can but it is not completely for her pleasure. No, she is tracking a murderer to clear her friend Daniel off the suspect list and the “Silver Sentinels” are helping her. Kelly finds herself in a little cold water but she and her friends are not giving up until they find the killer.

All my favorites were back for this new adventure but there was a new character that absolutely stole my heart. Priscilla, the mushroom/truffle-sniffing pig with a big pink bow. 🙂 Seriously though, Ms. Finsilver has created a wonderful cast of characters. The recurring characters are a tightly knit bunch and the new characters added several dimensions to the story. Several holding high places on the Sentinels suspect list. I really do enjoy the way this active group of senior citizens gets involved in the community and solving murders. I wish I was as active as they are.

The backdrop of the story is the illegal harvesting of Redwood trees and redwood sinker logs that have rested underwater for years. I found the information and description of the sculptures created from the redwood and sinker logs very interesting. The sinker logs are rare and there is a lot of red tape to obtain them legally.  We also see how protective mushroom gatherers are of their foraging sites. In this story, one site is on sacred Indian land.  I love learning new things while reading a cozy mystery. Plus the descriptions of the items and the places they were found created great imagery.

The author has given readers a solid mystery with plenty of twists. The Silver Sentinels had their lists on the board but finding someone with motive, means and opportunity just wasn’t lining up. Kelly was pulling out all the stops to figure it out. Readers like me will figure it out right before Kelly has her “aha moment”. Thankfully the woman can think on her feet.

At the end of Murder at the Fortune Teller’s Table, I thought there was a romance budding for Kelly, that part of her story is moving very slowly book wise but in the timeframe of the series is unfolding at the right pace.

I have enjoyed this entire series and excited about where the characters are headed and eager to read about their next story.