"Let's Play Dead" is a cozy mystery. It's the second book in a series, but you don't need to read the first novel to understand this one. Also, I don't think this novel "spoiled" anything in the first novel if you read them out of order.

There was a nice level of setting detail and woven in information about running museums. The characters were interesting, varied, and complex. Yet there was a "warm-fuzzy" feel to the whole thing that made the situations seem not entirely realistic. The low level of suspense was created by curiosity about how the murder was done, by who, and why.

"Whodunit" was guessable. I thought it was obvious from the start. The two others reading the book weren't convinced by my argument and thought that other characters were just as likely (which was true). I didn't correctly guess why "whodunit," though.

In my opinion, the ending left something to be desired. We're left with a feeling of "but we're not sure that's really what happened." Not to mention that it's not a "normal murder mystery." I think I would have been more okay with having a "realistic" whodunit solution if the interesting, complex situation hadn't been wrapped up with as many warm-fuzzies as possible.

There were no sex scenes. There was a minor amount of fake bad language and potentially offensive language (some people will consider it bad language, others won't) as well as some explicit bad language. Overall, it was an enjoyable novel even though not quite what I was expecting.

I received this book as a review copy from the publisher.