Book Review: Murder on Cape Cod

Book: Murder on Cape Cod (A Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery book #1) by Maddie Day

Edition: Paperback

Description:

A Cape Cod shop owner and her book club must find a crafty killer in this charming new series from the Agatha-nominated author of the Country Store Mystery series.

Summer is busy season for Mackenzie “Mac” Almeida’s bicycle shop, nestled in the quaint, seaside hamlet of Westham, Massachusetts. She’s expecting an influx of tourists at Mac’s Bikes; instead she discovers the body of Jake Lacey. Mac can’t imagine anyone stabbing the down-on-his-luck handyman. However, the authorities seem to think Mac is a strong suspect after she was spotted arguing with Jake just hours before his death. Mac knows she didn’t do it, but she does recognize the weapon—her brother Derrick’s fishing knife.

Mac’s only experience with murder investigations is limited to the cozy mysteries she reads with her local book group, the Cozy Capers. So to clear her name—and maybe her brother’s too—Mac will have to summon help from her Cozy Capers co-investigators and a library’s worth of detectives’ tips and tricks. For a small town, Westham is teeming with possible killers, and this is one mystery where Mac is hoping for anything but a surprise ending…



Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Review:

Murder on Cape Cod was a good read and it had interesting characters but it was just missing something that would have made the mystery even better. The story follows Mackenzie "Mac" Almedia who tries to figure out who killed Jake Lacey, a sort of elusive down on his luck sort of guy. With her older brother Derrick as the number 1 suspect since his knife was used as the murder weapon. And for a slight moment, Mac was sort of seen as a suspect but the focus is definitely on her brother. Wanting to clear Derrick's name and solve the mystery, Mac got help from memebers of her book club, the Cozy Capers.

I enjoyed reading about the small town and getting to know Mac, her family (her parents, grandmother, brother and her niece) and all the other characters. I really liked all the characters. The only issue I had with this story was that I felt the mystery was lacking a bit. There was no real suspense except for a couple of scenes and it felt like the ending just dumped a bunch of information at the reader. It also would have been nice to have seen more of the Cozy Capers shown looking for clues and investigating as well. Instead, there was more tell than show in regards to this. I know that Mac is the main character so she was going to be the focus but I guess I wanted to see how the other characters would add to the mystery solving. As for the mystery, the clues made it too easy to figure out who the murderer was.

This wasn't a bad read and I'm going to continue with the series because the second book description seems interesting with one of the Cozy Capers being accused of murder. Although this isn't mystery related but I feel like the story is slowly setting up Mac to eventually be with Detective Lincoln Haskins. I guess I'll see if this turns out to be true or not as I continue on with the series. So, good story, good characters and just an okay mystery. Before I forget, there's also recipes at the end of the book.