While visiting the land of Miss Marple and Sherlock Holmes, bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Samantha Washington finds herself on a tragical mystery tour . . .
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Sam joins Nana Jo and her Shady Acres Retirement Village friends Irma, Dorothy, and Ruby Mae on a weeklong trip to London, England, to experience the Peabody Mystery Lovers Tour. The chance to see the sights and walk the streets that inspired Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle is a dream come true for Sam—and a perfect way to celebrate her new publishing contract as a mystery author.
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But between visits to Jack the Ripper’s Whitechapel district and 221B Baker Street, Major Horace Peabody is found dead, supposedly of natural causes. Despite his employer’s unfortunate demise, the tour guide insists on keeping calm and carrying on—until another tourist on their trip also dies under mysterious circumstances. Now it’s up to Sam and the Shady Acres ladies to mix and mingle among their fellow mystery lovers, find a motive, and turn up a murderer . . .Â
Release Date:Â Jan 26, 2021
Series:Â Mystery Bookshop
Book: 6
Publisher:Â Kensington
Price: $9.99
Imagine yourself on a fabulous vacation that is suddenly in the midst of a murder investigation. Oh, no! A Tourist’s Guide to Murder, takes you on vacation; on a tour of mystery, that will have you enjoying it, every step of the way.Â
I must admit, I had a bit of a difficult time getting through the beginning of this cozy. The story did not capture my attention right away and as the story progressed, I felt it was a bit winded. Although, I did not connect very well with the story, at first, there were excellent points that I did enjoy. The author for example, gives excellent details on the places they toured, and her vivid description of these places provided me with an on-par front row seat. I also enjoyed that this book was very well edited. Sometimes, it is very difficult to get through a story that is drowning with simple editorial mistakes. There is also a matter of the story containing another completely different story within this book. The protagonist, Samantha Washington, you see, is an author on this tour doing research for her book. As A Tourist’s Guide to Murder progresses, the main character is writing her own book at the same time with a story parallel with what is happening in this book. Confusing? I thought so too, at first, but I did end up enjoying it and mid-way I was already invested in both stories.Â
I had a bit of an issue with the character’s description; they were quite unique in this book. As a matter of introduction, there was detailed emphasis on what the characters looked like, heavy set, petite, short, tall, etc. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the strong emphasis was there at the beginning, more so than I’ve noticed in other books. This put me off a bit and was a major reason, why I couldn’t focus and connect. As the plot evolved, though, the characterization flourished, and I was able to relate to them. A good point is that the author provided the storyline with characters with very different personalities, adding effect and layers to the characters; the good, the bad and the unsavory.Â
This was a slow mystery to solve. Bonus that this was a mystery within a mystery with the parallel storyline. A descriptive, detailed account of the mystery tour and an enjoyable read, nonetheless, once I gave it a chance.Â
~ Patricia
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