Murder at Honey Hollow Inn

Murder at Honey Hollow Inn: A Small Town Cozy Mystery

Lorna St. James

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Clem Harper runs the Honey Hollow Inn in the quaint town of Maplewood. While preparing to host a writers’ retreat, Simone Lancaster, a local art dealer, turns up dead in the parlor. Clem, retired detective Finn and her friend Mabel attempt to find who the killer is and why Simone was killed.

This novella struggles to gain traction from the beginning. After finding the dead body, Clem does not call the authorities, instead she decides to confide in a retired detective as not to disrupt the writers’ retreat. I know that when reading fiction, one sometimes needs to suspend reality. However, this was a leap that was difficult for this reader to make. The author attempts to make the characters quirky, but they come off two dimensional. I believe that this may be the author’s first book and I’m sure as she continues to write, these issues can be resolved.

*I received a free ARC from the author and BookFunnel. All opinions expressed are my own.