Death of a Dapper Snowman (Stormy Day Mystery book 1)
Author: Angela Pepper
3.5 out of 5 stars
When 33-year-old Stormy Day moves back to her hometown of Misty Falls, she has to contend with both rumors about her return and her father’s girlfriend, Pam. One day, she agrees to take Pam’s cat to the vet, but she has to catch him first. After finding him sitting on top of a snowman, she’s finally able to get him in the cat carrier. While looking at the snowman, she’s shocked to realize that the snowman has been built around the body of her father’s neighbor, Murray Michaels. As the investigation begins, Stormy, whose father is a retired police officer, can’t help but begin to investigate herself.
The mystery was good, and having the victim’s body concealed in a snowman was really interesting. There was some clue dropping that seemed a bit heavy-handed, but there was enough of it that I was wondering, what’s a red herring and what isn’t? The writing had a good flow, and there were some really nice descriptions, like when Stormy’s describes the way she sometimes feels like she’s in a snow globe when she walks through town while it’s snowing.
Overall, the characters were interesting with a nice variety of personalities. Stormy was a good main character, who felt relatable. However, there were times when she seemed a bit immature. Mostly when she would call one of the police officers, who Stormy’s known since she was a teenager, Tony Baloney.
The humor in this book was, sometimes, a bit iffy. Some of the characters had humorous names, like Stormy and her sister Sunny, and police officer Peggy Wiggles. Some of the jokes were funny, but there were a few scenes where the amount and type of joking and teasing was too much and I was ready for the story to move on.
I enjoyed reading this book, but there just wasn’t anything about it that really grabbed me and made me want to read more of the series. That and the other negatives I mentioned are why I’m rating this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Current price through Amazon kindle: $2.99
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Dapper-Snowman-Stormy-Mystery-ebook/dp/B073QSBKL5
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