Fool's Puzzle

After the intensity of David Shields' book on death, I needed something light so read Fool's Puzzle by Earlene Fowler, the first book in her Benni Harper cozy mystery series. It is set on the central coast of California in a ranching community. The main character is a recently widowed young woman who runs a craft coop. She is, like most female leads in cozies, feisty and routinely clashes with the new police chief in town. It was a fun read and I did not figure out the killer before Benni did. I have at least of these on the shelf and they are available from the library so may continue with it.

The style is smooth enough, and Benni Harper, our narrator, is sympathetic enough to have kept me reading for about 150 pages, but she acted stupidly one too many times, so that not even the resolution of the mystery or romance or Arts and Crafts theme could make me keep going.

I hate mysteries where some amateur detective keeps things from the police, or lies to them or hides evidence. Now, there are reasons people act this way I could buy, without marking them in my eyes as Too Stupid to Live. Some people have had bad experiences with the police that makes them wary. It could be a case where there's reason to believe the department of this small California town is corrupt. Or maybe there's reason to believe the police aren't taking show more the case seriously. I could even understand, even if not condone, wanting to protect someone very close to you--a best friend, child, spouse. None of those things apply here--and Benni does it again and again, in one case over a "fifth cousin" she doesn't care for and another time she doesn't hand over the computer disk belong to a murdered acquaintance because she doesn't want to embarrass him! She even hides evidence after she's been called on her behavior several times by the acting police chief, been threatened by him with jail and after delaying telling them what she found caused the loss of key evidence. Then she does it again. She removes crucial evidence she doesn't entrust to the police in the person of an acting police chief who is conscientious, smart--and with whom she has a mutual attraction.

Really, the detective protagonist doesn't have to be as brave as Buffy and brilliant as Miss Marple to win my liking and respect--but I do like at least some common sense.

I think we were supposed to feel sympathy for Benni acting that way because the chief was soooooo mean as to be annoyed when she does this again and again. But my sympathies were completely with Chief Gabe Ortiz--too bad Benni is a fool. show less

First of a new series, this is a suspenseful and twisty mystery with fairly good characters and a good sense of location. Thankfully, the author does not dwell on the charms of the heroine, except that she has beautiful red hair, but she does point out the charms of the hot new police chief who is so obviously smitten with the heroine, Benni. He, as the dutiful policeman, keeps warning her off the case, but leads keep turning up for her and she follows them until she is cornered by the killer but fortunately rescued in the nick of time by the hot police chief.

This book took me several chapters before I became more interested in the story. It seemed to start a little slow, which is ok. I like to get to know the main characters or town/setting in the first of a series. The main heroine, Benni, took a little to get used to and I still am not sure how well I like her. I really felt sorrow for her situation in life and could understand some of her motives or reactions. I did feel the pace of the book took a more natural walk. I didn't feel pressed for time to engage on a deep level with anyone or anything.

I didn't know who the killer was until it was revealed. Sometimes when a killer is unknown to the reader as obvious, it gives the author an opportunity to use characters and events to reveal a show more believable motive for a crime. I liked that the killer was known but not expected.....until you were given key pieces of evidence.

I did like the developing relationship with Gabe. Benni's family also seems worth getting to know in future books.

Overall, this book was not screamingly great, just a good start to what I hope will grow into a good series. show less

Surprisingly good. There are so many of these gimmick mystery series around that it's always a bit startling when one of them can rise above the norm, but this one does. The characters are complex and the story is good. It's easy to see how this series made it all the way to 15 books.

There's something to be said for the idea that Benni's constant butting of heads with the police makes her foolish, but foolish or not, I think all of her actions were in character. If everyone in the world behaved sensibly all the time there wouldn't be much to write about.

Even though this is a series of cozies, I hadn't read any of them so the main character, Benni Harper was new to me.

Bennie Harper's husband died and she wanted to get away from the ranch from everything that reminded her of him. She would miss the family but now that he was gone, she felt disconnected from them. She needed to get away and start living her own life.

So she took a job as a director of a folk art museum in San Ceclina, California. I really like the setting; I love folk art, especially quilts so the setting made me feel quite at home.

Her cousin, Rita turned down a marriage proposal from a rich Southern guy and moved back to Celina. Rita is impulsive and never thinks things through. She moved in with Marla to share an show more apartment with her. Marla is a tall and beautiful folk artist that really loves men.

One day, poor Bennie walks in a room to find that Marla was stabbed to death with an awl. Things haven't been going right for Bennie, she has been yearning for the ranch and taking care of the artists and the museum has not been easy. Rita disappears at the same time!

Into the mix walks Police Chief Ortiz who becomes a romantic interest in this story. Benni has a talent for wisecracking; in fact I think she is addicted. But Ortiz seems to understand her better than she does herself. The odd thing is that I liked him more than Bennie. I just couldn’t stand why she didn’t have more common sense and keep getting herself into danger. I thought she was often rude to him. But despite my thoughts he fell for her!

This book has a lot of humor and the mystery has a lot of twists and turns. Solving this mystery did not take a backseat to the development of characters as it does in a lot of cozies.

I would recommend this book to all cozy mystery lovers. show less

An excellent mystery. Formulaic, true, but the writing is light and funny, and the lead character is engaging.