Scraps of Paper

Nice cozy mystery. The pace was a bit too slow for me, a bit too repetitious and the ending made sense but it jumped out and landed (belly flopped) on the pages without much warning, or lead up.
I liked the characters for the most part. Some of the writing was on the nose-style, but it's part of the genre, I think.

A review for the audio edition

There are lots of things that I loved about this story.
I enjoyed the mystery and the sad story behind the missing children and their mother. The story had me hooked. It was fast paced and easy to listen to. It wasn't too hard to figure out 'who dunnit' but there were plenty of suspects and I enjoyed the process of figuring it out along with Abigail.
I loved the friendship slow developing friendship between Abigail and Frank and I am going to enjoy seeing how their relationship progresses through the series.
I loved the setting, a little town in America, with a whole mix of characters and strange personalities. Abigail is a brave character. I would not want to live in her spooky house!

I have not listened show more to any of Wendy Tremont King's performances before but I would happily pick up another recording by her. I thought she did an excellent job with this production. I tend to listen with the audio on a faster speed to save time and because I'm too impatient to hear what happens next! The performance worked well on both normal and faster speeds.

I found the story of the dead children and their mother to be very sad. I also felt sorry for Abigail because of her personal tragedy.
The story was a lot more serious than what I was expecting. With a name like Spookie Town I was expecting there to be some cute humour and light relief provided by the quirky characters of the town. But, it has a more solemn tone than some of cute cozy mysteries that are popping up in large numbers these days and I liked that Spookie Town was a bit different.
I really enjoyed this traditional, small town murder mystery and I will definitely pick up the rest of the series.

I received an audio copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

An enjoyable cozy mystery read. Abigail is ready to begin her life anew after the body of her husband was found after missing for two years. She comes upon the small town of Spookie and decides it is the perfect place to live. She buys a house with a tragic past and she is soon finding clues left behind by the children who went missing 30 years before. Thus begins a search of what happened to the children and their mother. She is aided in her search by a former cop who grew up and retired to Spookie. Abigail shares what she has found with the local newspaper and each week the search is outlined in the paper. The whole town gets involves. Abigail becomes the subject of mischief by someone who does not want her to keep probing. In the show more end, we learn that the local grocer had fallen for the mother of the kids and strangled her when she said she was leaving town. The children were poisoned by their Aunt who knew their mom was dead and did not want them to get the house. The Aunt was later murdered by the grocer after the Aunt blackmailed him for years. Kind of convoluted but the characters were likable and kept the reader entertained.
Reader's Favorite Review: Reviewed by Michael McManus for Readers' Favorite

Abigail Sutton, a graphics artist, whose husband went missing for two years but was recently found dead, moves to the small village of Spookie. She has left her old life behind, hoping to escape from the pain of losing the love of her life and to start over in another place where she can pursue her dream of being a real artist; not just someone who makes pictures for advertising. From the moment that she enters the quaint little town, she falls in love with its shops and stores and the people who run them. On her very first visit to the little diner on Main Street she meets a local Realtor, who in only four tries finds a house that is perfect for her. Unfortunately, along with getting the deed to the property, Abigail also inherits its mystery. Many years ago a mother and her two children disappeared from the house, and our transplanted artist becomes compelled to find out why. With the help of a retired cop, with whom she begins a close friendship, and in the face of more than a little danger, she works through clues old and new to solve a thirty-year-old crime.

“Scraps of Paper” is a well-constructed mystery with just the right mix of good guys and bad guys, with a sprinkling of oddballs and misfits thrown in. Kathryn Meyer Griffin does a nice job of allowing the friendship of the book's two main characters to develop as the story progresses. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good who-done-it, set in a picturesque environment with believable characters. This is the first book in a series the author calls 'The Spookie Town Mysteries'. show less

When I first saw the title, I thought it might be a scrapbooking story--it's not, but it does involve the main character finding pieces of paper with clues throughout the new house that she's just purchased. Unfortunately the story is told in such a way that I felt held at arms length from the characters and the action--and that made it very hard to care about the story or the characters.

Abigail moves into a small town and buys an old house to live in. The previous owner has recently died, and Abigail finds out that the owner's sister and two children had disappeared from the house about 30 years earlier, never to be seen again. As Abigail starts fixing things up, she finds papers written on by the kids that make her think that something very wrong happened here.

I really enjoyed this mystery! I enjoyed the characters and found the mystery interesting. Though I was able to guess at part of the ending, there was one small twist in there, as well. I plan to continue reading the series.

Just finished Scraps of Paper. I give it 4 stars. It would have received 5, but there were a few grammatical errors throughout. Summary: Abigail needs to find a new life for herself. She has grieved for her husband for 2 years and now it is time to move on. Abigail finds the town of Spookie and falls in love with the town and its quirky characters. She learns that the house she buys has an unhappy past. 30 years earlier a young mother and her 2 children go missing. While renovating the house, Abigail finds scraps of paper written by the children. After befriending a newspaperwoman, the two decide to run a series of stories asking the townspeople to come forward with their own stories and theories of what happened 30 years ago. The show more series brings out some wonderful stories; however, it also brings out some very negati show less

I picked this book up because I wanted to read something light after finishing a number of deep books that had left me with book hangover. It definitely was light, but I was disappointed because the book was not that well-written. There are grammatical errors, as well as misspellings. Since this wasn't a galley copy that I was reading, that disappointed me. I found that the characters weren't very well-drawn, and I had figured out the killer very early in the book. I did manage to finish the book (that is why I gave it 3 stars), but I had almost put it down a few times. I thought that Ms. Griffith portrayed the small town atmosphere in Spookie Town fairly well. The townspeople are eccentric and quirky and that helped me get into the show more book a bit. Myrtle the bag lady was a treasure, and I kind of liked Frank, who helps Abigail solve the 30 year-old murder that she uncovers after she moves into her new home.. Light reading, with just a little bit of the supernatural. If you aren't expecting anything else, you may enjoy this book. show less