Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Humor

4****

Blurb: Merry Wrath’s hometown of Who’s There, Iowa may be a nice, if quirky, place to live, but it’s also the murder capital of Iowa—a fact that’s somewhat known only regionally. But all that’s about to change, when a film crew with murder on its mind arrives in town to make a documentary. The team aren’t killers themselves, but they are a bit too eager that a death will happen around the murder-adjacent, ex-CIA agent turned Girl Scout Leader, Merry. Only when a dead body finally does show up, Merry can’t get anyone in town to believe the man didn’t die of natural causes. It doesn’t help that the documentary’s focus on Detective Rex Ferguson’s 100% solve rate changes when a rumor starts that a major streaming studio is interested. Then every kook in town wants in on the action, and the film crew starts looking into some very fictional reenactments that include explosives. Things get worse when an anonymous family member of the victim shows up to claim the body for immediate cremation, and Merry realizes that she’s running out of time to solve a murder…before everything blows up in her face.

THOUGHTS: Here we go again with another murder in weird and wacky Who’s There, Iowa. This time, Merry discovers a body that for appearances seems to be a natural death. Which is a problem for the documentary film crew that is following her and her husband Rex around. but Merry thinks something is wrong with the body and it is only through her pushing that they discover that the man was actually murdered. While trying to hold the film crew in check, deal with the over-enthusiastic teenage mayor and council, she actually does figure everything out. This is an insanely funny series of cozy mysteries with unbelievable characters and situations that boggle the imagination.

If you don’t mind weird characters and even weirder situations, pick this series up – but be prepared to completely suspend your belief in anything sane or believable.

Recommended.