Happy Acres is an older trailer park that is undergoing changes and being spiffed up. The main character ins this story is Wade Lovett, a 62-year-old former jazz saxophonist who is also a widower. After going through a period of major alcoholism, he sort of has gotten it together and is juggling three women! (1) Carol Smitsky, a secretary/receptionist at a car dealership, who wants to marry Wade, (2) Peggy MacCallister, a flighty 66-year-old, pretty with a good figure and big silicon-enhanced breasts and ends up dead at the beginning of the book, and (3) Sue Mullen, a 49-year-old barmaid at the rundown Barleycorn’s Tap Room where Wade does his daily drinking of one beer and a shot of tequila. All of them knew about the others, but how much the situation suited them is anyone’s guess. Like Wade, Carol and Peggy live in the Happy Acres Mobile Estates, a trailer park in a fictional Westmorland, California and Sue lives in an adjacent seedy housing development.

When Carol asks Wade to marry her, he is not sure what to think. She convinces him that it is a marriage of financial and medical convenience (she has health insurance) and after all they are fond of each other. When Wade agrees, he heads off to tell Peggy, afterall he should tell her that their relationship is over before she hears it from someone elste. When he gets to her house he finds her dead in a puddle of ice tea on the kitchen floor. Assuming she has had a heart attack, he contacts 911. When he finds out that Peggy has left him her cat and $2000.00 in her will, he takes Prince Albert home. A week or so later, it is determined that he is the beneficiary of Peggy's $100,000.00 life insurance policy. Her children ask for an autopsy as they now thing that she has been killed and Wade is the primary suspect.

Wade and Carol go through with the marriage, but it is hard for him to settle into married life. When he becomes the target of a murder investigation, he realizes that if he does not find the real murderer, he may end up in prison.

This is actually tough for me to review because for the most part I enjoyed the story. It was a fast paced mystery that held my attention to the end. I really liked the twists and turns that it had. The problem for me was the characters. I didn't really like any of them. Wade kind of grew on me by the end, but they were portrayed as weak, self-indulgent, alcoholism was rampant, and they could be mean and nasty to each other. Sometimes, that makes me like the characters in spite of their flaws, but not this time.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

My original Death Comes to Happy Acres audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

63-year-old Wade has been a bit of a lady’s man. But when Carol proposes marriage, he accepts. After all, there’s the benefit of health insurance, and it seems a good deal all around. Trying to do the right thing, Wade intends to notify one of his other hook-ups, Peggy, that their get-togethers will have to stop, but he discovers Peggy is dead. Soon, Wade finds himself a suspect in the police investigation, as he is the person to gain the most from Peggy’s death. For starters, there’s Prince Albert, the cat, whose guardian Wade becomes. Wade has to find out what happened to Peggy.

Death Comes To Happy Acres was a cozy, clean mystery set on a trailer park in California with a small cast of oddball characters. Told from Wade’s first person perspective, it was written in a light-hearted, straightforward manner and was a quick and entertaining listen. There were plenty of suspects, and I failed to work out what exactly had happened to poor old Peggy until all was revealed in the end. Though Wade may come across as a bit of a player initially, he is actually a very likable guy who hasn’t got over the death of his wife. He gradually forms an attachment to Albert, the cat, which was endearing, and some of his musings were quite witty.

The narration was very good. Peter Husmann’s interpretation of Wade was excellent. He got across the sentiment of a lovable but philosophical, slightly lost character and sounded enthusiastic throughout. I wish the female voices would have been a bit more distinguishable. Because there were numerous females, it wasn’t always easy to keep up with it. There were no production issues.

On the whole, this was a solid whodunit without violence or strong language but with plenty of dry humor and the additional benefit of following an older gentleman on his journey of coping with his loss and finding an unexpected bond with an animal. Definitely recommended for fans of cozy mysteries with down-to-earth characters and all animal lovers.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author. ( )

What happens when you’ve followed your passion but never quite made it? Wade Lovett, former jazz musician, is in his sixties and living in a trailer park. He has unexpectedly found, at this late stage in his life, that a number of women find him attractive, though he is self-deprecating enough to acknowledge that this is largely due to outliving the competition.

Now Carol, one of the three women he is seeing, wants to marry him and another, Peggy, is dead. Peggy named him beneficiary of her life insurance (and her pedigree cat) before she died. The police suspect him of her murder. Wade has seen enough cable TV to know that being innocent is no bar to being convicted and so he sets out to find out who really did murder Peggy. And he needs to find a home for that cat.

Wade plays down his ill health and financial worries with dry humour. He and his fellow residents at Happy Acres (where the streets are named after the fifty states, in no particular order) form an ill-assorted community. There’s a sense for all of them that life hasn’t quite worked out as they’d hoped but there’s also a dogged determination to wring what pleasure they can from it.

The fact that Wade juggles three women and can’t even be bothered to lie might seem shabby in a different character but here it says something about his disengagement. He appears genuinely surprised to learn they’re not as cool about it as he is. Wade keeps everyone at a distance. No one is allowed in his home – for reasons that become clear.

This book makes deft use of all the classic mystery devices but more than that, it’s the story of Wade’s realisation that his life at Happy Acres isn’t over. There’s a whole world in there, albeit one where Rhode Island is next to Nebraska.
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I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. This review first appeared on the TNBBC blog http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.co.uk/ ( )

This story is set in a trailer park of the title's name in California.
A retired jazz musician who lives in the park has three girlfriends who also live on the park.
One day he finds one of them dead in her caravan.
He starts investigating, but comes up against many suspects.
An easy read which passes the time.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review. ( )