Penny Warner

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Carissa Blackwood is an out-of-work ghostwriter who can work anywhere, maybe even writing a book as herself. So she has left her no-good cheating husband behind and heads to Pelican Point, California, to help manage the Blackwood Bed ’n’ Breakfast Inn, a Victorian manor her Aunt Hazel and Aunt Runa inherited following the death of their father, Bram Blackwood. They have grand ideas for their B&B but need Carissa to help with the techy stuff and organization.

Hazel and show more Rune’s father “dabbled in the occult,” and it turns out they have their own passions. Runa is a collector of crystals and knows their “healing powers”. She also would like to hold séances to reach the ghosts haunting the inn. Hazel is a master gardener. She uses her herbary to make a variety of herbal cures.

Following a preview party the night before the inn’s opening, one of the guests is found dead. She was poisoned, and the poison could have come from Hazel’s special garden. Add to that, one of Rune’s crystals is also found near the body. Carissa knows she needs to find the real culprit to clear her aunts of the crime. She does have help: Aiden, the local newspaper reporter, Noah, the handyman at the inn, and even the ghost of Carissa’s grandfather wants to play a role. Can they work together to out the killer? Or will the killer strike again?

I enjoyed Ms. Warner’s other cozy series’, so I was very excited to see her name on this new book.

In the first Haunted Dead and Breakfast Mystery, she has introduced a great cast of characters. Carissa wants to help her aunts in any way that she can. It doesn’t take long for her to get the reservation and payment system under control. She enjoys getting to know her aunts again as an adult. Aunt Hazel is a sweet natured 60-year old 5’5″ woman with a sparkle in her eye who takes pride in her gardens. Aunt Runa couldn’t be more different from her younger sister. She is six feet tall, “thin as a rail” dyed black hair in a sharp bob with heavy bands highlighted with a streak of purple and moves almost faster than Carissa. Noah is a jack-of-all-trades who helped the ladies renovate the inn and is now their handyman. There is some mystery to the man. Aiden Quincy is the publisher of the Pelican Point Press with connections the aunts may need if they are charged and arrested. We meet other residents of Pelican Point; some are friendlier than others. I was happy to see how well the characters developed over the course of the story while leaving room for growth as the series continues.

The inn is a fascinating place, as most Victorians are. There is plenty of space for everything they need for the B&B, and they still have space for their private areas. The attic is a treasure trove of Carissa’s grandfather’s past. There are plenty of nooks and crannies, and it may even have secret rooms. Rune and Hazel have designed themed guest rooms: The Sleepy Hollow room, the Ghostbusters room, the Scooby Doo room, and The Birds room. The movie The Birds freaked me out when I was young so that room would be a big NO from me, but my kids would love the Ghostbusters room, and the grandchildren love Scooby Doo, and the Sleepy Hollow room sounds fun. It would be a great place to visit, and it opens up a world of possibilities for future books in the series, especially if the characters that check in are as interesting as the ones in this book.

Not everyone in Pelican Point is happy about the opening of Blackwood Bed ’n’ Breakfast Inn, but would someone kill to close it down? This gives Ms. Warner’s mystery a plethora of suspects with a variety of motives. She sets up some red herrings, twists, and turns that keep the pages flying. The mystery flowed at an excellent pace, and the subplots meshed nicely with the main plotline. I enjoyed the part a mysterious cat named Pye played in the story. I had an inkling about the guilty party, but I found myself so caught up in the story, I cast my personal investigation aside.

I loved Murder at Blackwood Inn from beginning to end. The characters are cleverly created, the setting is perfectly haunting, and the mystery is light and entertaining. I am excited for this series to continue so I can spend more time with these wonderful characters. show less

A 2nd grade student gave this to me to read. It's all show and no tell, and the stereotypical tokenist diversity is annoying. And for heaven's sake, there is more to ASL than finger spelling.

Carissa Blackwood has come to Pelican Point, California, to help her aunt's run their new bed & breakfast. Her aunts are a little eccentric. One is devoted to crystals and the other to herbs and poisonous plants. They have decorated their inherited Italianate mansion in a spooky theme. From a black, purple and green exterior to rooms decorated for famous horror movies, Carissa is wondering if she's making a right move after her acrimonious divorces and losing her job as a ghostwriter for a show more famous author.

However, her aunts have decorated her room according to a Nancy Drew theme, and are supportive of her desires to write her own mysteries once the inn is up and running.

The reception they are holding on the evening before their first guests arrive is supposed to introduce them to the locals. However, only five people attend and all have their own agendas from the other innkeeper in town who resents their competition to the next door neighbor wo worries that the odd color scheme will destroy his home's value to the real estate agent who has been trying to convince the sisters to sell out and buy a nice oceanside condo.

Things go from bad to worse when the real estate agent is found dead in her bed the next morning with one of Aunt Runa's crystals under her bed. Further investigations lead to the conclusion that she was poisoned with belladonna which Aunt Hazel tends in her poisons garden.

With the police focusing on Aunt Hazel, it is up to Carissa to channel Nancy Drew and find out who really murdered the realtor.

This was an entertaining cozy mystery set in a bed & breakfast that I would like to visit. show less

Cozy mystery featuring Connor Westphal, a deaf reporter/publisher running a weekly paper in gold country California. Lots going on here for Connor to investigate as murder keeps piling upon murder and she needs to find the connection. Easy flow and I liked Connor. Overall a fun and engaging read, though there is need for some editing as there are some typos and macros that keep appearing.