Snowed Under is a cozy mystery about Maggie McDonald. Maggie and her best friend Tess have traveled to Lake Tahoe. Tess is planning to sell her family vacation home and Maggie has agreed to use her professional organizing skills to declutter the house and get it ready for sale. They arrive along with a snowstorm -- and a murder mystery when Maggie discovers a body in the snow!
I wanted to read Snowed Under because I enjoy cozy mysteries. I was intrigued by the job of a professional organizer, and liked the mention of dogs in the story.
This is my first read in the Maggie McDonald series, but it was an enjoyable read as a standalone. The two major characters were Maggie and Tess and since they were in a new setting, there was not a lot of additional backstory to catch up with.
I don't think I have ever read a book that captured winter weather and being snowed in as well as Snowed Under! It made me feel cold just reading about the storm. I have had limited experience with snow storms, so found that aspect of the book interesting.
The mystery involves Dev, the man found in a snow drift. Dev was a husband and father who disappeared several months ago and was found by chance by Maggie. The story involves the neighborhood and community, so there were a lot of characters to get to know and keep up with. (A cast of characters page would have been helpful.) The mystery was well plotted with a number of suspects, but then it took a sort of turn and the murderer came out of nowhere (not a previously introduced suspect).
There are a number of dogs in Snowed Under, and that always adds to cozy mystery enjoyment for me! I was particularly fond of Duke, the persnickety little chihuahua.
The chapter epigraphs all were inspiring quotes about simplifying and organizing. There was less actually organizing and decluttering in the book than I had expected; this may be different in other books in the Maggie McDonald series.
Snowed Under was an enjoyable cozy mystery read. It will keep readers on their toes as they solve the case along with Maggie. Readers who enjoy seasonal settings (winter!) and dogs in mysteries will also enjoy those aspects of the storytelling.
Book Synopsis
When professional organizer Maggie McDonald finds a body in a snowdrift outside her friend’s ski cabin, she must plow through the clues to find a cold-blooded killer . . .
Lake Tahoe in February is beautiful, but Maggie can’t see a thing as she drives through a blinding blizzard with her friend Tess Olmos and their dogs, golden retriever Belle and German shepherd Mozart.Maggie has offered her professional decluttering skills to help Tess tidy up her late husband’s cabin in preparation to sell. She also plans to get in some skiing when her husband Max and their boys join them later in the week.
What she doesn’t plan on is finding a boot in a snowdrift attached to a corpse. The frozen stiff turns out to be Tess’s neighbor, Dev Bailey, who disappeared two months ago. His widow Leslie expresses grief, but Maggie can’t help but wonder if it’s a snow job. As more suspects start to pile up, things go downhill fast, and Maggie must keep her cool to solve the murder before the killer takes a powder . . .
Mary Feliz writes the Maggie McDonald Mysteries featuring a Silicon Valley professional organizer and her sidekick golden retriever. She’s worked for Fortune 500 firms and mom and pop enterprises, competed in whale boat races and done synchronized swimming. She attends organizing conferences in her character’s stead, but Maggie’s skills leave her in the dust.
Author Links: Website – Blog – Facebook – Twitter
Purchase Links:
Amazon B&N Kobo Google Books Kensington
No comments:
Post a Comment