Fear of Frying

Jane Jeffry and her best friend Shelley Nowack are on a school committee that is checking out a summer camp for kids in their district. It is a weekend long outing up in Wisconsin. The camp is beautiful, but has its share of problems. The biggest problem was caused by a bunch eco-terrorists who have gotten a county ordinance passed that no changes can be made to the camp. The owners are trying to encourage groups to come in for conferences. All is going well until Jane and Shelley discover a dead man killed by a cast iron frying pan. But, after calling the local sheriff, the body disappears. The weather at the camp goes bad, as Jane and Shelley try to figure out if they really saw a dead man in the first place. The book was fun until show more the last few chapters when the story gets bogged down by way to much dialogue and a less than satisfactory conclusion. show less

Each book in a cozy mystery series usually has a theme and the theme of Fear of Frying was summer camp. Having been a camp counselor in my youth, this was of particular interest to me and I wasn't disappointed with the treatment it was given. Fear of Frying veered away from the series usual format focusing on Jane and Shelley and leaving the usual supporting characters behind. While necessary for the theme of the novel to be realistic, the lack of familiar interaction made Fear of Frying a little less engaging then the other books in the series. As with all the Jane Jeffry mysteries, Fear of Frying was a fluffy, fast bit of fun.

When Jane Jeffry agrees to accompany her best friend, Shelley Nowack, on a trip to Wisconsin to look at a summer camp for suburban kids, she thinks it will be a nice quiet getaway. But things are never quite quiet when Jane is around and soon she and Shelley stumble across a dead body. Jane is used to murder – has even solved a case or two - but she’s not used to dead bodies coming back to life and is shocked when the alleged murder victim shows up alive and well at the camp. Jane’s not sure what is going on but she’s determined to get to the bottom of things, even if it means putting herself in danger.

I always enjoy my visit to Jane Jeffry’s world and “Fear of Frying” is no exception. Having the novel set outside of show more Jane’s home means that characters like Jane’s children – Mike, Todd, and Katie – as well as her boyfriend Mel aren’t in this book and I did miss them a bit. But the summer camp is a nice change of pace and author Jill Churchill is able to introduce new characters in this setting as well as set up a decent mystery there. Jane and Shelley are a bit out of their element at the summer camp, which adds some nice humorous moments as well as some suspense in the book.

The mystery itself is okay. It’s nicely plotted, but readers will quickly figure out some of what is going on. There are lots of characters which means lots of suspects and plenty of red herrings, but I did get some of the characters mixed up in my mind and had to keep flipping back in the book to figure out who was who. A list of characters at the front of the book would have been handy. While some plot points are easy to figure out, readers will still have a hard time figuring out who the murderer is.

“Fear of Frying” is a nicely done if at times predictable cozy mystery. show less

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