Debra Sennefelder

A fun and lively mystery!

Kelly’s consignment shop is struggling, so she is hoping the Black Friday sales will give the shop a much needed financial boost. The shop gets more attention than Kelly bargained for though, with the arrival of a beautiful sequined evening dress once owned by one of the “Long Island Ladies”, a wildly popular reality show.

Initially, Kelly is excited by the acquisition, but unforeseen trouble ensues, when one of the show’s former co-stars shows up to a party show more wearing the dress, a a juicy cat fight erupts. But, when one of the women turns up dead, Kelly is forced to investigate- despite detective’s warnings not to get involved…

Fashion and reality shows! The premise sounds like some good fluffy fun- right? Well, okay, yes, it is a light, zany book- but if you enjoy a good whodunit- the mystery is tight and solid.

The recurring characters are still in development, this being only the second installment in the series, but the personalities are forming nicely, and Kelly is very easy to root for.

The pacing is quick, and the dialogue is smart, which kept me turning pages, surprised by how quickly I’d finished the book!

Overall, this is a fun series, an easy read, and delightfully entertaining. Can’t ask for more than that! show less

Thirty-something Hope Early is in crisis after a messy divorce & an embarrassing reality show appearance derailed her career. She returns to her picturesque New England hometown of Jefferson seeking refuge from her dysfunctional life and romance in the big city. In pursuit of a new life as a professional blogger & Internet influencer, Hope renovates a quaint, old farmhouse into a charming blogging laboratory and residence in which she lives with her all-too-adorable pets—Bigelow, Princess, show more & Poppy—while pursuing a romance with her former high school crush & current police chief Ethan. With her best friend Drew and her ragamuffin entourage of sister, studly boyfriend, and assorted townfolk, Hope decides she must solve the murder of the neighborhood’s crazy old harridan because the local police suspect Hope of being the murderer and—quite frankly—they’re too lazy and incompetent to figure it out for themselves.

So, once again we have a dimwitted amateur sleuth dating the local lawman…does the Mystery Writers’ Union actually make that mandatory now? That is just soooo trite!

Ethan really is a creep, but Hope is too stupid to figure it out. He uses her for free childcare, free meals, and free booty calls while his beloved ex-wife is off at rehab. All the while, Ethan can’t even be bothered to remember Hope’s name; I swear, if he had referred to her as ‘babe’ one more time, I would have thrown this stupid book through the window.

Hope really is an unbelievable piece of work.
When the town’s weird curmudgeon, Birdie, decides to start a petition to force Hope out of her newly renovated home, Hope loses her mind and her temper. But, why? No neighborhood petition is ever going to be able to force a resident out of a lawfully owned home; that’s just ridiculous. Not to mention the fact that Birdie has made enemies out of just about everyone in the community and has virtually no friends or allies. Hope knows that no one—No. One.—is signing Birdie’s bogus petition. So why does Hope flip out and make a colossal production out of absolutely nothing? Any rational person would just laugh at the ravings of the town’s eccentric loon and move on with life. That whole episode made Hope come across as slightly unhinged and more than a little dumb...

Which probably explains why she doesn’t hesitate to fling unfounded accusations all over town. Hope is incensed at being wrongfully accused of murder by the local constabulary, yet she herself goes around randomly accusing her friends and neighbors of committing the crime—then she wonders why they hold it against her? Ummm, that’s nothing short of stupid. And, at this point, I don’t even know how Hope would expect to live in Jefferson after all of her atrocious behavior.

But let’s not give Hope any credit for having the least bit of intelligence. Even when the actual murderer brazenly kidnaps her and holds her hostage, it STILL takes Hope a little while to figure out the identity of the killer. Unbelievable.

This series gets such glowing reviews, I really expected it to be semi-decent. But all I got was a cookie-cutter formula with a brainless sleuth who is so helpless she probably has trouble figuring out how to tie her own shoes. show less

Hope Early, after a less than stellar turn as a competitor on a baking reality show, a divorce, and leaving her publishing career in New York City, has moved back to her little home town of Jefferson, Connecticut, and is making her living as a successful food blogger. With her family, as well as old friends and new, nearby, the future is looking good.

Then she attends the book launch of friend Audrey Bloom. Audrey is a gardener, with a profitable career writing about gardening, and this show more launch party is also a tour of her own garden. Hope's sister, Claire, a real estate agent, also attends, against Hope's advice. Claire wants Audrey to list her house with Claire; Audrey has no obvious reason to sell. It's potentially contentious.

Someone else unexpected turns up--Claire's biggest rival, Peaches McCoy, another real estate agent, who has been poaching listings from other agents, including Claire.

When Peaches is discovered dead in Audrey's husband's home office, Claire immediately becomes the prime suspect. The police detective in charge of the investigation is, though, strangely and aggressively hostile, starting off by rather smugly telling Hope that her friendship with the police chief, Ethan Cahill, going back to school days, isn't going to stop him investigating his prime suspect. Which, outside the context of the conversation in the book, doesn't sound inappropriate, but he's also, as the story goes on, actively resistant to any evidence that might suggest anyone other than Claire could have a motive.

I really liked Hope, Ethan Cahill, another of Hope's friends, Drew, who is a local reporter, and a few other characters. The hostile police detective, on the other hand, is both unlikeable and a cliché. Claire is also not very likeable, and more than a little short-sighted about what is and isn't in her own best interests.

And with the detective so obviously set on railroading Claire, it's bizarre that everyone keeps haranguing Hope about her decision to do some investigating herself, without suggesting any alternative other than trusting the detective who wants to railroad Claire. Yet at the same time, Hope is a terrible choice as an investigator, because she alienates pretty much every potential witness or possible suspect she speaks to.

Overall, though I like Hope and her friends, the story overall is frustrating and annoying.

I bought this audiobook. show less

I really liked the debut story in a new mystery series. After coming in second in a reality baking show, Hope Early has moved home to Jefferson, Connecticut and is trying her hand at being a food blogger. With some of her past notoriety, this endeavor is slowly becoming a going concern. She shares an assistant with fellow townsperson/author, Audrey Bloom. During Audrey's combination garden tour and book signing. local realtor Peaches McCoy, uninvited and not well liked, is found dead. show more Unfortunately for Hope, her realtor sister Claire turns out to be the number one suspect. I really liked how the story wove into both some of the past and present of these new characters. And often I felt nods to some other great series, the interplay between the characters was a lot of fun and seemed so real. show less