By 
Valerie Taylor, the Author of”Switched at Death” has written a captivating and intriguing cozy mystery. This is the sequel to “”A Whale of A Murder”, but can be read by itself. The genres for this delightful and enjoyable cozy mystery novel are Women’s Friendship Fiction, Sister’s Mystery, and Romance. I love that the author provides recipes of cookies and other baked goods in the back of the book, as well as a playlist of many of the songs that I grew up singing, and still do. In this well-written novel, the author vividly describes the scenery, the plot, and dramatic and colorful characters. The characters are describes as complex, complicated, quirky, dysfunctional, and suspect.
The protagonist of the story is Venus Bixby, a widow and owner of a music store “Oldies & Goodies” There is also the “Bixby Bakery” in the store. Venus does have aspirations to be on the town council. Many of the same characters are in this story, and there are some new ones. Venus Bixby uses the reward money from the first book to establish a Kitty Daycare Service. It is around the holidays, and Venus’s twin sister and family have arrived to visit. At the tree lighting in town, there is a fire, and the Mayor dies of a heart attack. Further investigation indicates there was faulty electrical wiring that caused the heart attack. This was either an accident or a murder.
Both Venus and her sister begin to make a list of suspects. Some of them are close to Venus. There are twists and turns, betrayals, secrets, vandalism, and danger, jealousy and competition. I highly recommend this enjoyable mystery.
Linda's Book Obsession: 