Name: Murder Past Due
ISBN: 9780425236031

Miranda James

When famous author and former classmate Godfrey Priest is murdered after only being in Athena, Mississippi for one day, good-natured librarian Charlie Harris, with a little help from his Maine coon cat named Diesel, must read between the lines to catch a killer. Original.

Murder Past Due

Sarah Sammis

In terms of plot and the revelation of clues reminds me of the Goldie Bear Culinary mysteries by Diane Mott Davidson. The clues come in a mixture of character studies and allowing the main character do his job.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2018/comm...

Susan Forsythe

Not quite a three star rating 2.75 stars. I know this book is a cozy mystery but I found a couple of things that took me out of the story and never let me fully settle in and feel at "home" during the book. 
At the beginning, there were too many mentions of hand washing and minute details which was distracting to me. It seems like the author was trying to put too much filler to expand the story to novel length. These things did disappear in the last 1/4 of the book where the action picked up. 
Despite this (and the criticism/spoiler below), I did like the setting and the characters were interesting.
I am willing to give the next book in the series a second chance to see if it can draw me in without the distractions. 
I have one more opinion below but I left it until last because it sort of contains spoilers.

Spoilers ahead





The one thing that annoyed me the most was that Charlie kept saying over and over again that he felt one character was innocent. And in the end this character was the murderer. There is much better ways to distract the reader from the murderer than blatantly saying "I am sure X is innocent". Show not tell- even when you are trying to throw people off the scent.

Is it finally over? That was the longest 213 pages that I have ever read. What kills me the most is that the writer obviously has talent. The diction and syntax are pretty much fine in my book, save a possibly racist portrayal of a southern black maid talking like she's from The Help when it's supposed to be a modern time period. What killed this book was that the author bogged me down in the first person narrative, filled with mundane details and repeating the same basic thing twice. Like, he would feel hungry and then say he was going to lunch. Also painstakingly describing each ingredient that went into the sandwiches, and it's why it took over a week for me to finish the 213 pages.

The murder mystery itself was run of the mill. A random citizen with no business being in the murder investigation gets roped in because the lead detective's mother is worried she'll have trouble. The "twist" is that there is a cat. We're contstantly reminded of the cat in every scene and it gets annoying. I don't know how Maine Coons "rumble" but apparently it's all the time. Also he leaves his cat in the car and that's not cool.

I knew who the killer was early on, just more doubted that it would be as plain as it was and not something more twist-worthy that this book needed. I did laugh about the ranting on book publishing, because this book needed an editor to chop the fat off and make the protagonist's sad story shine. Honestly, this guy was horrid until we found out that he was basically abandoned by his children and getting over his wife's death. I mean come on, there's your relateable protagonist. Instead we get this hypocritical, condescending "paternal" protagonist who basically destroys the investigative efforts of the lead deputy in an attempt to help her, because she's a woman so she can't be successful on her own. Ugh. Also, unless that 18 year old boy Justin was seriously abused, I don't get his character. He's just too childlike in his mannerisms, and no one uses "sir" or "mam" as much as he does. It's just fake.

Finally, we never find out who broke into the office to get the contracts. Or I skimmed over it, but either way it just has a weird ending and leaves one wanting more. More emotion, more reality, less details about random characters that make me want to throw my ereader.

Murder Past Due

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