Dead and Breakfast

Mavis Lashley Mystery #4

by Robert Nordan

Widow Mavis Lashley gets an urgent call from an old friend Eileen Hollowell, who's heading to North Carolina where her bed-and-breakfast is being sabotaged. When the body of a local teen is found on the property, Mavis quickly puts her instincts to work.

230 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2001

Reviews

[Donna Polanski · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't get into it and gave up. I didn't care for the writing style. Seemed like it would be a quick read, but it wasn't for me. Can't win 'em all!

[Darcia Helle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cozy mystery about Mavis, a widow I assume to be somewhere in her seventies. I liked Mavis and thought her character was well developed. However, the plot was lacking and parts didn't feel believable. While visiting a friend, Mavis stumbles upon a dead body. She sets out to solve the murder, with the help of her nephew. As these clues unraveled, I found it stretched credibility that they would have been overlooked by the police during an investigation. There were no surprises for me in this whodunit. The killer struck me as obvious, making it even less believable that the police would have been that incompetent to require an older woman to come in and solve their case.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mavis Lashley and Eileen Hollowell have been friends through some hard times, so when Eileen says she needs Mavis' help, Mavis takes the long trip to Eileen's farm, which she's about to transform into a bed and breakfast. Someone has been playing ugly tricks on Eileen as she tries to get ready for the first influx of guests. But it's more serious when the high school girl who is helping out is found murdered, and Eileen's developmentally disabled son becomes a person of interest. Fortunately, Mavis' nephew Dale comes to help out, too.