Helpful Score: 3
Enjoyable "cozy" style mystery. Reads quick and keeps the reader engaged and interested. I will definately keep watching for more from this author - if future stories are as good as this one then they're worth my time.
Helpful Score: 3
Well-written mystery; the plot entwines 2 similar murders separated by 200 years with some interesting twists at the end. The flashbacks to the first murder contain a lot of historical detail, which make them realistic. Unlike a lot of murder mysteries, in which the main character who is trying to solve the mystery is conveniently married to or dating a policeman or detective (who is able to give the main character information most people have no access to), this book has no such ties and Andy has to use her wits. I found it much easier to relate to her.
Helpful Score: 2
A 200-year-old skeleton hidden in a old church steeple in Newburyport, Massachusetts was found by Andy Gammon during a restoration of the old church steeple, a newcomer to Newburyport, Massachusets where her husband's family settle for many years. There was something else hidden with the skeleton; a rare silver tankard that was missing since the time of the Great Fire in 1811. This silver tankard was missing from the church since the Great Fire of 1811. A lot of twist and turns in finding out what happened during that era and the people who lived there. This story was a quick, likeable mystery story to read.
Helpful Score: 1
There are two mysteries to solve in this absorbing book. One took place in 1811 in the town of Newburyport, Mass, while the other just occurred. Someone doesn't want either mystery solved in this town that is steeped in history and tradition.
I liked this book a lot. It's a mystery on two levels. One taking place currently and one in the past.
Ron K. (WhidbeyIslander) -
Easy to read, but boring as well. I gave up about 80 pages in, after plodding through passages about the narrator's trip to McDonald's with her children and six pages of she and two elderly companions climbing the treacherous stairs of the steeple during a storm to investigate a noise they heard. Too many detours from what promised to be an interesting plot line.
good mystery
As I plodded through this book, I had much in the way of negative commentary for a book review I was composing in my head. Then I read the last 8 pages and I was very touched by the ending. The beginning was very well done also. It was everything in between that slowed me down. Just too much "cozy" for my taste - I'm sure that's what it was. I perceived it as too much detail of the humdrum of life, such as the protagonist's children and her mother-in-law and her husband's committee work at school, for pete's sake. I think the author was laying ground for a book series, but it just made me want to pull my hair out. And then I ran smack into a beautiful ending, but could still give this book no more than 3 stars. The author has published one more Andy Gammon mystery.
