Review: Mingling with Murder

MINGLING WITH MURDER by Leslie Langree

Fiction, Cozy Mystery

4****

Blurb: Welcome to Mingle, Iowa—We’re Putting Our Past Behind Us! Merry Wrath, ex-CIA agent turned Girl Scout leader, is accompanying thirteen year olds Mayor Ava, Betty, Lauren, and Inez from her troop to the regional conference for small town mayors. Mingle, Iowa, the home of the Mayor Mingle conference, is famous for a major scandal in the 1980s that no one seems to remember, even though the current mayor does everything in his power to keep them from forgetting! Have dinner at the Nothing to See Here Restaurant! Relax at the It Didn’t Quite Happen That Way Bar! Merry is excited that her husband and detective, Rex, is getting an award for having a 100% murder solve rate! But she’s concerned that Ava’s presenting The Most Murdery Town—How To Utilize Your Town’s Biggest Assets! Not to be outdone, Ava’s right hand henchgirl, Betty, is presenting on How to Bend City Hall to Your Will & Everything I Learned From Huey Long. Merry’s hoping she can sit in on the sessions to jump in when things most likely go awry (as they often do). We hope you survive—er, enjoy your stay! Unfortunately, things go very awry when one of the mayors is murdered. But who did it? Was it the mayor from the town famous for its termite infestation? Could it be the snooty mayor who descended from her town’s founders? Or the mayor who always dresses like an ear of corn? How about the mayor from the lobster capital of Iowa? Or the mayor who is an actual pig? It doesn’t help that the victim’s dying wish was for Rex to solve this case before the conference ends despite it being out of his jurisdiction! Can Merry and Rex solve this crime in time—or is Mingle destined to have the stain of a new scandal on their Welcome To billboard?

Thoughts: Like previous books in this series, this was an… interesting read. I’m not sure I liked it, but I couldn’t seem to put it down. The characters were unbelievable – and I mean that they were so over the top ridiculous that I couldn’t believe it. The only semi-realistic characters were Merry Wrath (who’s ex-CIA), her husband Rex (detective), Mary (ex-FBI), and her brother Bill (cop). Even the names of the towns are bizarre. (See blurb above)

In this book, Merry and Rex accompany their 13-year-old mayor, Ava, and her three cohorts to a mayor convention in the town of Mingle, Iowa. While there, the mayor of Mingle is killed and, while there are multiple police in attendance with their mayors, it’s up to the foursome of Merry, Mary, Rex, and Bill to solve the crime.

Meanwhile, Ava and her cohorts are turning the convention into their own kind of playground by leading sessions on how to make city councils bend to your will (and effectively doing so) and other forms of coercion. They are actually rather scary! And only in sixth grade!

The story is so tongue-in-cheek and silly as to be groan-worthy hilarious.

Recommended – but only if you are willing to completely suspend any sense of sanity while reading this.