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Bed-and-Breakfast Mysteries #10
Nutty as a Fruitcake
Hillside Manor's neighbors all adored proprietor Judith McMonigle Flynn's festive suggestion to deck the halls and houses in their cul-de-sac with eye-catching Christmas finery -- except Enid Goodrich.The grumpy old humbug refused to cooperate.Then someone cooked her Christmas goose -- silencing Enid's objections with a handy hatchet. Though Judith's already got a lot under her tree -- what with holidy business booming and the anticipated unwanted arrival of hubby Joe's soused ex-spouse -- she's not about to let murder mess up what's left of her seasonal spirit. With the help of irrepressible cousin Renie, Judith's determined to wrap up this case for Christmas -- and expose the Scrooge-slayer who felt strongly that the only Goodrich is a Deadrich.
272 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
65 people are currently reading
511 people want to read
About the author
Mary Daheim
94 books441 followersMary Rene Richardson Daheim was an American writer of romance and mystery novels.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
July 11, 2019
A Christmas setting in Judith McGonigle Flynn's neighborhood with the usual cast of quirky characters.
December 27, 2016
Loved the plot, it kept me guessing who done it?!
April 10, 2011
Judith McMonigle Flynn is too much...fun. She's absolutely exhilarating! Her cousin Renie is bubbling over w/ exuberance. The two together is the perfect definition of the term
"madcap hijinks".
Nutty as a Fruitcake is a side-splitting experience. I laughed so hard I just couldn't control my fits of laughter.
"madcap hijinks".
Nutty as a Fruitcake is a side-splitting experience. I laughed so hard I just couldn't control my fits of laughter.
December 29, 2016
The cul-de-sac agreed to all decorate their homes for Christmas – all but one of the houses. Enid Goodrich was a constant complainer, a truly grumpy old lady. She ruled her husband and married children like a tyrant…. Right up to the morning she was found hacked to death in her bed. Her poor husband, George, was the immediate suspect, but Judith Flynn, owner – manager of the neighboring Bed and Breakfast wasn’t so sure. Certainly there were several people – including her own mother – who had threatened Enid with murder for her vicious ways. The police seemed to accept the idea that George was the culprit. Could Judith and her cousin solve the crime before Goodrich children sold the house? ---I didn’t particularly like the story, but I must admit I was kept guessing until the very end.
May 25, 2021
Judith is determined to make Christmas perfect in everyway. When she has a neighborhood meeting she is hopeful that they will partake in making the cul de sac a Christmas wonderland. All are excited but one crabby neighborhood who refuses to participate. Enid Goodrich has never be a welcoming person so it is little surprise that she ends up murdered in her room. It's always the spouse that is the first suspect but how could it be meek and mild George. No one could believe that is possible ...even Judith is determined to prove otherwise.
May 29, 2018
Good read
I love these Bed and Breakfast mysteries so much and this book is no different in keeping this reader entertained and engrossed in the sleuthing mind of Judith McMonigal. Renie and Judith are written so well, they have become my best friends. The thing is-I don’t know if I’d like to go anywhere with Judith if I wanted a corpse free time. Ha ha. Can’t wait to read the next one.
I love these Bed and Breakfast mysteries so much and this book is no different in keeping this reader entertained and engrossed in the sleuthing mind of Judith McMonigal. Renie and Judith are written so well, they have become my best friends. The thing is-I don’t know if I’d like to go anywhere with Judith if I wanted a corpse free time. Ha ha. Can’t wait to read the next one.
January 11, 2023
This was one of the better written cozies that I’ve read in a while. Being number 12 in a series it was still easy enough to pick up and read as a book on its own. I liked following around Judith as she tries to figure out who murdered her neighbor. I could tell it was an older book with references to cordless phones and some other references that were more dated. But still a good read. If you enjoy cozies and a middle aged sleuth than this would be a good pick for you.
November 6, 2024
A grouchy old woman is brutally murdered in her home. Her elderly husband is found unconscious, drugged with sedatives. A nosy neighbor who is the wife of a cop snoops around in an effort to find out who done it.
I picked this up from the library because I saw it on a list of humorous cozy mysteries, and the cover seemed to confirm the categorization. The thing is, humor is subjective, and I found the characters in this story more irritating than funny.
I picked this up from the library because I saw it on a list of humorous cozy mysteries, and the cover seemed to confirm the categorization. The thing is, humor is subjective, and I found the characters in this story more irritating than funny.
April 20, 2025
This book really kept me guessing of who the murderer was. Yes, there is a murder and a lot of crazy-ness. Julia and Renie are trying to get ready for Christmas, but a murder happens. Be sure and read this book, it's comical and horrendous. Mystery fans will love it.
October 20, 2019
This was a little strange but I read it.
October 26, 2019
Ok. Lots more about narrators personal life. Mentioned drinking quite often
August 22, 2020
I thought this one was kinda sad.
January 8, 2023
Started reading then about 20% in I skipped to the end. There were too many people to keep track of and the relationship between Judith and her mom were disturbing and very unnecessary to the book.
January 8, 2019
This was an enjoyable seasonal mystery. It kept me guessing till the end! The characters were engaging, and I enjoyed the holiday setting.
July 24, 2016
I have an affinity for cozy mysteries. They generally aren't written in pursuit of a spot on the bestseller list; rather, cozies are written to give the reader a sense of comfort and calm (ironically, by way of murder).
My mom read cozies to escape her three eccentric young daughters and grumpy husband: one daughter, the artist, painted five-foot tall green flowers on the side of the freshly painted rental when she was four; the adventurous daughter asked which way north was, and was found by neighbors five hours later walking up the beach, wearing a backpack, in pursuit of Santa in the North Pole (we lived on an island--she wasn't the brightest of the three of us); and the oldest daughter (that would be I) caused her first-year kindergarten teacher to quit by demanding that all classroom toy soldiers and toy weapons be removed from the classroom so that her classmates would not become violent adults, and that the teacher immediately stop smoking on her breaks because she would surely die of lung cancer. As to my mother's husband, he had some strange notion that feeding 40 stray cats, a stray goat, a duck, and 4 turtles (not stray) out of a 2-bedroom apartment was odd. He also became irrationally upset when the cat gave birth in his shoe. So you see, for my mother, it was either read a cozy or drink (or possibly dispose of the children and husband).
Years later, when my grandmother came to live with us (bigger house, different country, revolving pet door, dad retired and usually lost in Best Buy, girls now goth, theater geek, and raver) we slowly replaced her true crime books with cozies in order to keep her from roaming the house at night after taking her pain pills, looking for the Son of Sam whilst armed with a shoe horn.
And all this is how I came to read cozies myself, because they were always there to help me escape my crazy family, you could carry on a screaming match with a sibling and not miss much in the book, and thanks to grandma's Dahmer intervention, there were always a shitload in the house. (Serious reading was done away from the insane people.)I have an affinity for cozy mysteries. They generally aren't written in pursuit of a spot on the bestseller list; rather, cozies are written to give the reader a sense of comfort and calm (ironically, by way of murder).
My mom read cozies to escape her three eccentric young daughters and grumpy husband: one daughter, the artist, painted five-foot tall green flowers on the side of the freshly painted rental when she was four; the adventurous daughter asked which way north was, and was found by neighbors five hours later walking up the beach, wearing a backpack, in pursuit of Santa in the North Pole (we lived on an island--she wasn't the brightest of the three of us); and the oldest daughter (that would be I) caused her first-year kindergarten teacher to quit by demanding that all classroom toy soldiers and toy weapons be removed from the classroom so that her classmates would not become violent adults, and that the teacher immediately stop smoking on her breaks because she would surely die of lung cancer. As to my mother's husband, he had some strange notion that feeding 40 stray cats, a stray goat, a duck, and 4 turtles (not stray) out of a 2-bedroom apartment was odd. He also became irrationally upset when the cat gave birth in his shoe. So you see, for my mother, it was either read a cozy or drink (or possibly dispose of the children and husband).
Years later, when my grandmother came to live with us (bigger house, different country, revolving pet door, dad retired and usually lost in Best Buy, girls now goth, theater geek, and raver) we slowly replaced her true crime books with cozies in order to keep her from roaming the house at night after taking her pain pills, looking for the Son of Sam whilst armed with a shoe horn.
And all this is how I came to read cozies myself, because they were always there to help me escape my crazy family, you could carry on a screaming match with a sibling and not miss much in the book, and thanks to grandma's Dahmer intervention, there were always a shitload in the house. (Serious reading was done away from the insane people.)
My mom read cozies to escape her three eccentric young daughters and grumpy husband: one daughter, the artist, painted five-foot tall green flowers on the side of the freshly painted rental when she was four; the adventurous daughter asked which way north was, and was found by neighbors five hours later walking up the beach, wearing a backpack, in pursuit of Santa in the North Pole (we lived on an island--she wasn't the brightest of the three of us); and the oldest daughter (that would be I) caused her first-year kindergarten teacher to quit by demanding that all classroom toy soldiers and toy weapons be removed from the classroom so that her classmates would not become violent adults, and that the teacher immediately stop smoking on her breaks because she would surely die of lung cancer. As to my mother's husband, he had some strange notion that feeding 40 stray cats, a stray goat, a duck, and 4 turtles (not stray) out of a 2-bedroom apartment was odd. He also became irrationally upset when the cat gave birth in his shoe. So you see, for my mother, it was either read a cozy or drink (or possibly dispose of the children and husband).
Years later, when my grandmother came to live with us (bigger house, different country, revolving pet door, dad retired and usually lost in Best Buy, girls now goth, theater geek, and raver) we slowly replaced her true crime books with cozies in order to keep her from roaming the house at night after taking her pain pills, looking for the Son of Sam whilst armed with a shoe horn.
And all this is how I came to read cozies myself, because they were always there to help me escape my crazy family, you could carry on a screaming match with a sibling and not miss much in the book, and thanks to grandma's Dahmer intervention, there were always a shitload in the house. (Serious reading was done away from the insane people.)I have an affinity for cozy mysteries. They generally aren't written in pursuit of a spot on the bestseller list; rather, cozies are written to give the reader a sense of comfort and calm (ironically, by way of murder).
My mom read cozies to escape her three eccentric young daughters and grumpy husband: one daughter, the artist, painted five-foot tall green flowers on the side of the freshly painted rental when she was four; the adventurous daughter asked which way north was, and was found by neighbors five hours later walking up the beach, wearing a backpack, in pursuit of Santa in the North Pole (we lived on an island--she wasn't the brightest of the three of us); and the oldest daughter (that would be I) caused her first-year kindergarten teacher to quit by demanding that all classroom toy soldiers and toy weapons be removed from the classroom so that her classmates would not become violent adults, and that the teacher immediately stop smoking on her breaks because she would surely die of lung cancer. As to my mother's husband, he had some strange notion that feeding 40 stray cats, a stray goat, a duck, and 4 turtles (not stray) out of a 2-bedroom apartment was odd. He also became irrationally upset when the cat gave birth in his shoe. So you see, for my mother, it was either read a cozy or drink (or possibly dispose of the children and husband).
Years later, when my grandmother came to live with us (bigger house, different country, revolving pet door, dad retired and usually lost in Best Buy, girls now goth, theater geek, and raver) we slowly replaced her true crime books with cozies in order to keep her from roaming the house at night after taking her pain pills, looking for the Son of Sam whilst armed with a shoe horn.
And all this is how I came to read cozies myself, because they were always there to help me escape my crazy family, you could carry on a screaming match with a sibling and not miss much in the book, and thanks to grandma's Dahmer intervention, there were always a shitload in the house. (Serious reading was done away from the insane people.)
March 23, 2013
Another tangly one. Not quite finished, but since I like to record my thoughts on books, especially the writing, I wanted to jot this down.
At least an 8 ft Christmas tree should have more than 240 lights on it! We have a 9 ft one that gets at least 500 and in my opinion, that is still too few! At least 100 lights per foot makes for a much sparklier tree.
Mmmm. Spritz cookies! Actually, the dough is better than the cookies themselves. My mom always had to quadruple the batches of dough. She would make them the night before since they had to chill for several hours. Green for trees and red for poinsettias. My brother and I would take turns snitching dough a tablespoon at a time until we had eaten half the batch! By the next day, there were huge craters in the dough balls and we had stained tongues from the food coloring. Oh, the memories!
Finished the book. Didn't see the perp coming but I'm not surprised. What DID surprise me was the ending of this book. I won't spoil it, but crap!!!! I can't wait to read the next to see how that plays out...
At least an 8 ft Christmas tree should have more than 240 lights on it! We have a 9 ft one that gets at least 500 and in my opinion, that is still too few! At least 100 lights per foot makes for a much sparklier tree.
Mmmm. Spritz cookies! Actually, the dough is better than the cookies themselves. My mom always had to quadruple the batches of dough. She would make them the night before since they had to chill for several hours. Green for trees and red for poinsettias. My brother and I would take turns snitching dough a tablespoon at a time until we had eaten half the batch! By the next day, there were huge craters in the dough balls and we had stained tongues from the food coloring. Oh, the memories!
Finished the book. Didn't see the perp coming but I'm not surprised. What DID surprise me was the ending of this book. I won't spoil it, but crap!!!! I can't wait to read the next to see how that plays out...
November 4, 2009
Judith Flynn is busy enough preparing for a big family Christmas that will include, for the first time, her new husband's dreaded first wife. She's also trying to persuade the residents of her little cul de sac to decorate for the holidays. Everyone is agreeable--although it is Judith's bed and breakfast that will benefit most--except unpleasant invalid Enid Goodrich. When Enid is murdered. Judith adds finding a killer to her to-do list.
June 22, 2015
I read this years ago, and I enjoyed it just as much a second time. Judith is busy with the Christmas season preparations at her B&B. Then one of her neighbors is killed. Of course, Judith can not leave the detective work to the police and does her own brand of sleuthing. The adventures of Judith and Renie, her cousin, are always fun to read. Personally, I would get rid of her cat--always seems to be latching on to her ankles!
November 28, 2010
This would have been a lot more enjoyable if she would just call Queen Ann Hill by its real name. I cringe when she called Boeing "The Boring Company" and at other cute names she comes up with the fictionalize Seattle. Also, I was hoping it was have more about the bed and breakfast establishment...
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March 1, 2013Was a little disappointed wiht this book in the B&B series. I found this one a littel harder to get through as the characters were not very nice and the policeman who tlaked like a pirate was just too much. will contimue with teh series because I want to see how the series finishes but am starting to read other books in between installments so as to be able to continue reading this series.
December 29, 2009
Another enjoyable Bed and Breakfast Mystery. Judith and Renie are such a good pair. I enjoy seeing how the two play off of each other. Daheim does her best to throw out clues and kept me guessing until the end.
January 2, 2009
I couldn't finish this book, a rare occurrence. I tried it twice. I like cozy mysteries. I like B&Bs. But I didn't like this book. I think she has too many characters who are all talking too much. It's not a bad book, but I thought it was boring.
August 2, 2013
I like the Christmas theme of this one, and the harriedness of getting ready for Christmas (gifts, cooking etc.) and solving a murder... the only drawback was the "pirate" cop. The Yo, Ho Ho got to be a little much. But the mystery itself was quite fun to try and figure out.
May 27, 2013
There were some interesting aspects to the story which is what made me pick up the book in the first place. I have been exploring the world of cosies and alas, this one has further reinforced that perhaps the genre is just not for me.
November 28, 2022
This is petty, but Renie's car is mentioned more often in this book than some of the actual characters. The author calls it Chev, Big Chev, Big Blue Chev, what are these, porn star names? Can't she call it a Chevrolet? Or a car? Or an SUV? A vehicle? For some reason "Chev" sounds dirty to me.
November 24, 2008
Even with a hatchet murder, this is a cozy with lots of holiday spirit.
May 5, 2008
These are just a fun quick read. Have always wanted to try the fruitcake recipe at the back of this one. Minus the liquor. :)
November 25, 2008
This one ended up being kind of pointless, but was a fun read nonetheless. I mostly just like spending time with the Judith and Renie!
December 17, 2010
I enjoyed this entry in the series. I loved all of Judith's Christmas traditions and the murder was pretty good as well.
June 8, 2011
I liked the Christmas plot and the characters.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews