Sophie "Phee" Kimball works for a private investigation firm in Phoenix as their bookkeeper. Her boyfriend Marshall is one of the investigators, and they have recently rediscovered each other after once working together in Mankato, Minnesota. Now they're gearing up to move from their respective small places into a larger home, and between that and work, Phee's been pretty busy.
But one night while visiting her mother Harriet, Harriet's dog Streetman keeps running into the neighbor's yard and pulls at their grill tarp. When Harriet tries to stop him, she thinks he's uncovering boxes. But Phee notices the "boxes" are shoes, and they're attached to a human body. When the police arrive, no one knows who the victim is, but all Phee can learn from them is that he didn't live anywhere near them, so she hopes to calm down Harriet from thinking there's a serial killer on the loose.
At least the owners of the home are in another state, because they're snowbirds. But when Phee's employer is called in to help, it's discovered how the man died, but the question is still who killed him and why. Soon Phee finds herself part of the investigation - as usual - and between finding out what information she can, she's still in the process of moving and having to attend all her mother's dog's contests. But when one of the owners of a dog contestant falls ill at the dog show, Phee begins to wonder if the two cases aren't tied together. What she finds isn't what she expects at all, and solving the case may not be as easy as she expects...
I have read every book in this series and I think this might be one of my favorites. Phee's mother Harriet is hilarious -- she thinks there's a serial killer around every corner, and I think if she were my mother I'd have constant headaches from rolling my eyes all the time. Her entire life is her dog, Streetman, a Chiweenie, and now she's entered him in holiday costume contests that she's engaged her friend Shirley, a retired milliner, to make for him. Each costume is more elaborate than the next; but since she's up against a snob of the worst sort, Harriet is willing to put a capital B in bling to win.
When they find the dead man, Phee thinks he was killed somewhere else and moved there because the killer knew the homeowners would be out of town. But finding out who killed him and why won't be easy. Once she and the investigators - Nate and Marshall - start digging for information, they find a connection to someone else in the Sun City retirement community, and things start to heat up. Now, with little to go on, that means Phee once again has to question the retirees about their friends, which she's not looking forward to.
It all comes to a head in the least likeliest of places, and Phee figures it out in a sudden 'aha' moment that puts everything together. But I was surprised that the killer wasn't who I expected it to be, yet if you listen to the dialogue, the clues are there. All the threads are woven together nicely, and the ending is humorous, but totally expected. Highly recommended.
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The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more
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Entertaining Cozy Mystery
Dollycas’s ThoughtsThere is always something happening at Sun City West. The new thing is the Precious Pooches Holiday Extravaganza and Harriet Plunkett plans to enter her chiweenie-chihuahua-dachshund Streetman in the event for each holiday starting with Halloween right through St. Patrick’s Day. Her friend Shirley is making his costumes and she knows he is going to win big. Streetman is not thrilled with the costumes at all, he is more concerned with a tarp in the neighbor’s yard.When Sophie “Phee” Kimball arrives at her mother’s the dog is frantic to go outside. They open the backdoor and Streetman lunges out pulling the leash and Harriet right to the tarp-covered grill where they notice a pair of shoes. When Phee carefully pulls the tarp back they find a man attached to the shoes, but he won’t be grilling anytime soon. Neither woman recognizes the man. He is later identified as Cameron Tully from Phoenix. He is a seafood distributor and he was poisoned by a toxic sago palm leaf.Police are having a hard time solving the murder but then a woman at a Precious Pooches event almost dies from the same thing. Harriet is afraid she and Streetman could be next. The police finally admit they need help and request Williams Investigations to assist on the case. This means Marshall and Phee are investigating but even they are having trouble. With Harriet nagging them at every move they know they need to solve this case and fast.These characters are so much fun. You have Harriet and her friends and they are a hoot! You also have the team at Williams Investigations, Nate Williams is a retired detective from Mankato, Minnesota. Augusta keeps the office running and helps with cases too. Phee works for him as a bookkeeper but is turning out to be a great amateur sleuth. When business picked up he lured Marshall, another Mankato detective down to Arizona. Phee was thrilled because she had had a crush on him for years and now they are moving in together. All these characters are so well developed, I can easily picture each one in my mind clearly. The places and events are described wonderfully too. It was so easy to imagine all the dogs and their owners parading around the park and all the chaos that erupts all around them.Dog lover that I am Streetman does steal the show for me.The mystery was a puzzler, with several red herrings. It took some serious digging for Phee to start bring things into focus and then the rest of the clues started to fall into place. I love the couple Marshall and Phee are becoming. They make a great team in all aspects of their life. I really enjoyed they worked together on this case, knowing each other’s strengths. It was a lot of fun following them step by step because I was completely in the dark right up to the reveal.I have to take a moment to compliment the creativeness of the costumes the authors dreamed up for Shirley to create. Detailed and well-crafted and much more complicated than the one Streetman is wearing on the cover. Each described in vivid detail. The attention to detail the authors bring to these costumes and the whole book overall is what really makes this story and the others in this series must-reads for me.Dressed Up 4 Murder is entertaining and captivating. The characters are strong and relatable and I can’t wait to see what they get themselves into next.If you like your cozy mysteries to be filled with humor and a complex mystery that will have you really thinking, this is the perfect book for you.
