Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Mystery Magnet

SERIES:  The Last Picks

AUTHOR:  Gregory Ashe

PUBLISHER:  Hodgkin and Blount

LENGTH:  181 pages

RELEASE DATE:  April 29. 2024

BLURB:  

He was born to write mysteries. Now, he has to solve them.

When Dashiell Dawson Dane moves across the country to a small seaside town called Hastings Rock, he has one goal: get away from his ex. Okay, two goals – because he wouldn’t mind a little help from his new boss, celebrity mystery author Vivienne Carver. With Vivienne’s mentorship, Dash is sure he can get over this blasted case of writer’s block and start telling his own stories again.

The only problem? Vivienne is murdered on Dash’s first night at Hemlock House. And when police find a secret passage that connects Dash’s bedroom to Vivienne’s, they’re sure they know who did it. Now Dash has to prove his innocence – and the only way to do that is to figure out who really killed Vivienne Carver.

REVIEW:

And now for something completely different!

Dashiell Dawson Dane is the son of successful writers and he’s a writer himself – although somewhat less successful than his parents.  They are friendly with Vivienne Carver, mystery writer extraordinaire.  Dash has recently broken up with his long term boyfriend and has driven across the country to take a job as the assistant to Vivienne.  She lives in a big old historic mansion situation on the cliffs of a tiny town on the Oregon coast.  Dash isn’t in a great place and he has no idea what he’s gotten himself into.  After Vivienne’s lawyer shows up for a meeting with her, he makes himself scarce – eating dinner alone and retiring to his room.  He’s barely slept, he’s overwhelmed by the house and the odd people he meets in Vivienne’s house – the personal chef Indira, a decorator names Fox, a hyper young woman Millie and a silent teenager named Keme (who apparently isn’t supposed to be on the premises) and so he makes it an early evening and heads to bed.

He gets up the next morning and rather than face any of the company in the house, he heads into town to grab a coffee where he runs into Millie, one of the people seems to “collect” as employees.  He heads back to the mansion and sees what he thinks might be a body in the water.  He calls the police and next thing he knows, he’s the prime suspect in the death of his new employer.  The police chief seems uninterested in following any other leads and of course Dash is on his own.  Until he isn’t.

When he comes upon Millie, Indira, Fox and Keme back at the mansion after being interrogated by the police, they surprisingly embrace him.  The call themselves the Last Picks – you know like in school for teams?  Well Dash fits right into that description he thinks.  The group decides they need to try to solve this murder and save Dash’s skin since none of them believe that he killed Vivienne.  The do find some oddities in Vivienne’s possession, but that still doesn’t point them to the killer.  Only Deputy Bobbie who keeps giving Dash both parking tickets and help.  There seems to be something more simmering there.  Friendship?  Bobbie has a boyfriend though so  . . .

Then there is another death.  On the property.  That Dash comes upon first.  And he is once again in the crosshairs.  It’s clear someone is setting him up!  Can he and the Last Picks figure out who is behind this?

Well this was a delight!  I have to say I didn’t see that ending coming 🙂  I have read Gregory Ashe for years and when I heard Cozy, I was all over it 🙂  There are definitely tributes/homages to other MM cozies and I adored that too.  The mystery is good, but the quirky characters are the story of the show!  Highly recommended and I cannot wait for the next book.  It’s coming soon 😀  If we you like Cozy Mysteries this is a good one.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon