What We're Reading Now by WWK Bloggers

 

The Perfect Couple, Elin Hilderbrand

By Margaret S. Hamilton

 

When I learned that Nantucket resident Elin Hilderbrand’s 2018 beach read, The Perfect Couple, was to become a Netflix miniseries, I was anxious to read it. To make the book even more appealing, the miniseries was filmed in April, 2023 in Chatham, on Cape Cod, as a stand-in for Nantucket. I know Chatham well from summer vacations and college years spent working in a Main Street restaurant. And Chatham was the site of my own wedding.

 

The book is Hilderbrand’s first mystery, set during a wedding weekend at a posh beachfront Nantucket estate. The morning of the wedding, the maid of honor is found dead in the harbor, and every wedding guest is a suspect, including the groom’s mother, a famous mystery writer.

 

The police chief and his detective interview everyone connected with the wedding. Feelings run high as we learn the complicated backstories of the many members of the wedding party. Hilderbrand’s multiple points of view give the narrative a brisk pace.

 

All is resolved, but alas, not to everyone’s satisfaction.

 

The Netflix miniseries will be broadcast in late 2023 or 2024, with Nicole Kidman playing the mystery writer. I can’t wait.

 

Snow Place for Murder, Diane Kelly

By E. B. Davis

 

Snow Place for Murder by Diane Kelly won’t be released until October 24, 2023. I read the Advanced Reader Copy from Net Galley. This is the third book in the series, and from the backstory, I wish I had read the first two books. Misty Murphy is amicably divorced from her college-age sons’ father. I gather when the boys started college, Misty took to the life-change by also taking her leave. From her divorce settlement, she bought Mountaintop Lodge in the Blue Ridge Mountains where guests keep getting murdered. That in and of itself gives her motive to solve murders.

 

Mountaintop Lodge is located adjacent to a restaurant. The restaurant owner and Misty become good friends, and the restaurant provides breakfast for Misty’s guests. The lodge is also located a few miles from a ski resort helping to provide skiing guests and incentive for her sons to take their college breaks with her.

 

The setting and the lodge are cozy. Misty has a good relationship with her sons, who seem well adjusted and responsible. She doesn’t have a lot of personal issues. As a business owner trying for success, her input into murder investigations isn’t contrived and the guests are obviously suspects, whom she has more access to than the police do. It’s a well thought out cozy scenario and invites readers to come and sit for a spell. There are excitements but no danger, which suits me fine. One surprise though, Misty's pet cat, Yeti, gets her own chapters. It's not paranormal, more like the pushy cat will give you her perspective on the case or family members, and you will read her chapters or risk getting clawed.

 

Since the book isn’t available for a few months, take the opportunity to read the first two books in this series now. Getaway with Murder is the first and the second is A Trip with Trouble.

 

 

The Golden Couple, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

By Marilyn Levinson

 

Lately, I've been reading psychological suspense novels, and The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen is one I especially enjoyed. Marissa and Matthew Bishop are a Washington D. C. couple that seem to have the perfect marriage—a son they dote on, jobs they enjoy, and a comfortable lifestyle. Marissa has made an appointment for them to see Avery Chambers, supposedly to discuss their son. But once they're In Avery's office, Marissa says that she's here to confess she's slept with someone. She won't say with whom, but she swears that it will never happen again.

 

Marissa is worried that Matthew will explode in anger or leave her, but though he keeps his distance for a while, she manages to woo him back and things seem to return to how they were. Except Marissa receives flowers and unsigned messages, which she finds disturbing and does her best to hide from Matthew. Meanwhile, Avery, whose unorthodox methods are responsible for her losing her marriage therapist license, spies on Marissa and Matthew to find out what's really going on in their marriage. Is Matthew having an affair? Is Marissa's assistant out to do her harm? Even Avery's personal problems seem to dovetail with the Butlers' issues as the tension rises and one of the Butlers is nearly killed.

 

A delightful page-turner with a twist I didn't see coming.