This book recently toured with Great Escapes Book Tours.
I was unable to post my review on my assigned date.
Today, I am posting the review I should have posted on that day.
Murder Strikes a Chord: A Pearly Girls Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Virginia
Publisher : Keylight Books; 1st edition (March 18, 2025)
Hardcover : 256 pages
ISBN-10 : 1684426561
ISBN-13 : 978-1684426560
Paperback : 256 pages
ISBN-10 : 1684426502
ISBN-13 : 978-1684426508
Digital ASIN : B0DPL47ZV5
Veronica Mars meets The Golden Girls as event planner Cassidy Jamison and her four sixty-year-old employees race to solve a rocker’s murder before the curtains close on their show and their business.
When Cassidy Jamison inherited her late grandmother’s event planning business, she also inherited her grandmother’s friends—four sixty-year-old women known around town as the Pearly Girls—as part-time employees. Now Cassidy barely has time to breathe between spending every waking hour trying to keep her business afloat and the Pearly Girls out of trouble and focused on event planning.
So when she lands a three-weekend event complete with a chart-topping band, she’s thrilled. Until she and her chihuahua mix Elvis find the body of the Weathermen’s lead singer in her venue’s koi pond. With the help of the not-so-helpful Pearly Girls, Cassidy must stave off the bad publicity, navigate the prying questions of the local police department, and solve the murder before the media frenzy shutters her business for good, and takes one of the Pearly Girls with it.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Cassidy Jamison has inherited Celebrations at Ivy Springs following her grandmother’s death. The inheritance included her grandmother’s friends and part-time employees: 4 sexagenarians, Ruthanne, Roxie, Aileen, and Kate, collectively known as the Pearly Girls. Cassidy has her hands full trying to find new ways to keep the business a success while keeping the Pearly Girls on task and out of trouble.
Cassidy is surprised and thankful when she books Groovin’ through Decades, a 3-weekend musical event featuring The Weatherman, a chart-topping group, and a favorite of the Pearly Girls.
Then, as she and her brown and tan Chihuahua mix are walking the property, they find the lead singer of the Weatherman’s dead body floating in the garden koi pond. Murder – this is awful for the singer and his band, but it could also put her out of business.
Can she trust the police to do their job? Especially when they have one of the Pearly girls on their list of suspects? She can’t chance it. She needs to solve this murder and fast! With Elvis by her side and the Pearly Girls trying to help, she starts investigating with a long list of suspects of her own.
This story was just plain fun for me as a sexagenarian myself.
The Pearly Girls have been friends since childhood and have stepped in to help Cassidy. Ruthanne is the accountant, and Aileen, Kate, and Roxie help with the coordination of events and decorations. They all like to have fun and are unique with their own strengths and weaknesses. Their excitement for meeting the Weatherman was so genuine, their age just slipped away, meeting their teenage idols. Cassidy is the glue that holds everything together. She is well organized and keeps notes to keep her on track with both work and her amateur sleuthing. Ms. Weidner did an excellent job developing the characters realistically and has left room for them to grow.
Life on the road for musicians is tough, especially when they’re in their 70s, and they have made some enemies along the way. The internet opened new lines for Cassidy to look into their history, at other band members, even the women they met and left along the way. I am unsure if I have gained knowledge over the years following bands, but I honed in on the guilty party early in the story. I enjoyed Cassidy’s observant nature and determination to solve the case and save her business. I also liked how she tried to protect herself and stayed in contact with the police.
Murder Strikes a Chord sparked some great memories for me. I have attended a lot of concerts over the years and do my best to see my favorites when they come to the area. The Pearly Girls really stole my heart with their antics and actions. Cassidy is a fine protagonist, too. Put that together with a dead rocker, suspicious bandmates, and a Blue Ridge Mountains venue, and you have all the makings of a fun whodunit. I hope Ms. Weidner is hard at work on the next Pearly Girls Mystery because I can’t wait to see what trouble they get mixed up in next.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you to the author for providing me with an ARC.
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About Heather Weidner
Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Pearly Girls Mysteries, the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries.
Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, and Murder by the Glass, and she has non-fiction pieces in Promophobia and The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers’ Cookbook.
She is a member of Sisters in Crime: National, Central Virginia, Chessie, Guppies, and Grand Canyon Writers, International Thriller Writers, and James River Writers, and she blogs regularly with the Writers Who Kill.
Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.
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Also written by Heather Weidner
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” “As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.” I am also an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.”
