It’s Easter in Pelican Bay, which means it’s time for the Easter Egg treasure hunt. When Ruth Smythe teams up with her new friends, she’s hoping to find the treasure, not another dead body. This time, the victim is Theo, who is none too popular around town.
Unfortunately for Ruth, the main suspect is Dan, her not-so-secret crush.
Add in an incompetent ring-in police inspector, and it’s clear Ruth has another mystery to solve to clear Dan’s name. Dan is a popular man around the small town, which means she has help … except that help isn’t always helpful. This leads to several awkward and funny situations that somehow come across as completely plausible despite being completely unrealistic in real life.
Doug isn’t the only non-human character. Susan J Bruce is an animal lover, and that comes through in lines like this:
It was a universal truth that the more you disliked cats, the more they wanted to sit on your lap.
As any cat lover knows, they are characters in their own right, and something I always enjoy. I loved the town of Pelican Bay, with it’s quirky characters (human, bird and feline), endless banter, and a true community spirit—especially when it comes to solving a murder.
Mostly Dead is the second book of the Ruthless the Killer Mysteries, following Dead Ahead. It’s an excellent cozy mystery in a fun Australian setting, complete with Doug the cockatoo, who delights in embarrassing the locals by repeating their secrets at the most inopportune times.
If you prefer strictly Christian fiction, Mostly Dead may not be the book for you. Having said that, it would still be G-rated if it was a book (or perhaps PG, given there is a rather nasty murder).
But if you’re a cozy mystery fan who doesn’t mind the odd murder in your fiction (along with a little not-quite-Christian content), you’ll enjoy Mostly Dead.
Recommended for fans of cozy mystery authors such as Heather Gilbert and Amanda Ashby.
Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.
About Susan J Bruce
Susan J Bruce is a former veterinarian turned award-winning author, professional copywriter and animal artist. Susan’s veterinary background invades her writing and animals run, fly, or crawl into nearly all of her tales. When Susan’s writing group challenged her to write a story that didn’t mention any animals—she failed! Susan lives in sunny South Australia with her husband, Marc, and their furred and feathered family. This currently includes a fat tortoiseshell cat, a rescue cockatiel, and an irrepressible ShiChi (Shih Tzu x Chihuahua) who thinks her mission in life is to stop Susan writing.
Running Scared is Susan’s first novel and was awarded the 2018 Caleb Prize for an unpublished manuscript.
Find Susan J Bruce online at:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | X
About Mostly Dead
Murder and romance. What could possibly go wrong?
Ruth Smythe is still getting used to small-town life when she stumbles on a body at Pelican Bay’s annual Easter egg hunt.
Two bodies in just a few weeks is bad enough—but it gets worse when Dan Rivers is arrested for murder.
Sure, Dan’s a little guarded and hard to read sometimes. But a killer?
No way. He’s kind. Loyal. Brave. And possibly her almost-boyfriend. (Not that she’s admitting it.)
As the case against him builds—and her reputation as Ruthless-the-Killer roars back to life—Ruth throws herself into the investigation.
With loyal friends, a cockatoo with no filter, and more at stake than she dares to admit, she’s determined to clear Dan’s name.
Because Dan could lose everything. She could lose… him.
And the real killer? Still out there.
Find Mostly Dead online at:
Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!
Award-winning Australian author Jennifer Mistmorgan sometimes feels like she was born in the wrong era. So she writes romantic historical fiction set in the 1940s, against the backdrop of WWII and its aftermath. She infuses her sweet romances with wartime drama, gentle faith and a dash of intrigue. She lives in Canberra with her family and a wonky-eared West Highland terrier.
