ROPES & LAST HOPES by Trixie Silvertale

Fiction, Cozy Mystery

4****

Blurb: When a suspicious death takes the life of a friend, our psychic sleuth must expose a killer’s dirty laundry… Mitzy Moon hopes for a normal day running errands. And this time, she’s determined to get her grandmother’s couture properly cleaned. But her day gets stuck in a spin cycle when she encounters crime-scene tape at the dry cleaner’s and a puzzling murder. With her only way into the case through an undercover stint in the women’s wrestling league, Mitzy charges ahead with little help from her mentor, Ghost-ma, or her entitled feline. But if the bell rings before she corners the suspect, more lives could end up on the ropes. Can Mitzy hold a murderer down for the count, or will she be taken out in a lethal smackdown? Ropes and Last Hopes is the prequel novella to the hilarious new paranormal cozy mystery series, Harper and Moon Investigations, a spinoff from the popular Mitzy Moon Mysteries. If you like snarky heroines, supernatural intrigue, and a dash of romance, then you’ll love Trixie Silvertale’s wedded whodunits.

THOUGHTS: Mitzy Moon has inherited from a bookstore, a strange building, and a fortune from her grandmother. Oh, and a closet full of high-fashion clothing. And the ghost of her grandmother loves to tell her how to live her life. Grams lives with her as does a wildcat that seems to have a way with clues to mysteries. In this one, a beloved lawyer who helps endangered women with her skills is killed and Mitzy goes undercover (without much covering) as a female wrestler in order to help find the killer.

There were parts of this that I loved, and parts that had me scratching my head in confusion. If this is supposed to be the prequel to a series, there sure does seem to have been a ton of stuff going on before hand. I found the beginning rather confusing, but by the end, I was enjoying the read. But it took me almost a hundred pages to get there.

Still, not a bad story and it has a mostly satisfying ending (while setting up for the next book). Recommended.