MISTAKEN IDENTITY MURDER by Leslie Langtry
Fiction, Cozy Mystery
4****
Blurb: Merry Wrath, ex-CIA agent turned Girl Scout leader, is having a hard time dealing with the fact that the girls in her troop are now at that extremely dangerous age—the middle school years. Bearing this in mind, Merry should have anticipated what disaster chaperoning the school dance would be. Chaos reigns with everything from a rogue attack penguin to a punch-induced hallucination brought on by the very latest synthetic LSD. Things only get worse when a man is murdered, and the killer has been caught on camera—and is none other than Merry Wrath! Merry knows she’s innocent, but proving it to the police is another matter. And family issues are keeping her awake at night too, now that Merry’s hosting the Holy Mud Man from Chechnya and his goat Warren, to see if her new twin nephews are prophets. Add to that the zoo is considering revoking Scout Lauren’s junior zookeeper status, and there’s a howler monkey loose in City Hall, and Merry may just be in over her head. Can she control her girls and solve the case before Officer Kevin Dooley and his hamster patrol throw her in jail?
Thoughts: This was a hilarious, sometimes confusing, oddball cozy mystery. If you take all the weird characters you’ve read about, put them in a town called “Who’s There”, and add in the CIA, hamsters who are cops, a hermit who parades as a Hobbit, a Holy Mud Man, and a town mayor who’s a thirteen-year-old girl (who likes to take animals from the zoo for fun), and you’ll get an idea of what’s going on here.
Actually, no you won’t. But all of the above is in there and plenty more. Merry is an ex-CIA operative. Her best friend is an ex-assassin (and enemy!). Merry’s husband, Rex, is the town cop and he shows her a video of her stabbing a man to death. And Merry and friends are off and running to prove her innocence. Merry also runs the local girl scout group—but those girls are scary! While the demon cultists aren’t. There are a lot of suspects in the story for Merry and friends to track down.
I found the story to be a fun read with a satisfying ending, but, like most series, coming into it not from the beginning, can be confusing at times. Though the author does an excellent job at weaving in the various connections between everyone. I would have liked a little more scenery, though, but overall, a decent story.
Recommended.
Disclosure of Material: I received a final and/or advanced reader copy of this book with the hope that I will leave my unbiased opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… My Opinions. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”
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