Summary
Dodie O’Dell lives in New Jersey and is the manager of the Windjammer, a restaurant/bar right next to the Etonville Little Theatre. Since Dodie’s best friend, Lola, is the artistic director for the theater, the Windjammer helps provide themed food for their productions.
This time, the ELT is putting on a modified version of Our Town. One of the extras, Sally Oldfield, is a young woman Dodie has taken under her wing. New to town, Sally is getting to know folks in Etonville through the ELT.
When Dodie stumbles into Sally at the theater on opening day, and notices she’s covered in blood, she hardly knows what to think. As Sally runs off, Dodie notices the body.
No one seems to know the dead man or why he was in town. But Sally’s disappeared. And she seemed startled to see that same man a few days earlier. Dodie’s going to need all her sleuthing skills to find Sally and figure out if she is a murderer.
Review
This is the first Dodie O’Dell mystery I’ve read, even though this is the third book in the series. I enjoyed the story and the characters.
Dodie is a pretty typical cozy protagonist. She’s dating the local Chief of Police. He respects her instincts but hates her interference, especially when it puts her in danger. Her role in the community, between her job, her friends and the theater, gives her a lot of access to information for sleuthing. The characters from town are pretty quirky, which gave the book a fun angle.
The mystery was good. I was able to puzzle out the main mystery, but there were still a couple twists I didn’t guess which made for a fun read. The story takes place around Valentine’ Day so the setting is nice and snowy for readers ready for wintery books.
I enjoyed this book and would like to pick up the first two books in the series. This story alludes to those “cases,” and they sound great.
Thanks to Kensington/Lyrical Underground and Netgalley for an electronic review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.