Murder by Death

This book (and series) has a lot going for it.  Likeable characters, great setting (a haunted yarn shop!), pretty decent mysteries, great punny titles. Hints about the MC's late grandmother's magical dye journals.  I should like it.  A lot.  But I just could not get through this one and I'm done with the series.

The main character, Kath, is pleasant, intelligent, independent, can see ghosts, and in most respects acts like a mature adult.  But she doesn't like the Deputy in charge of murder investigations.  His name is Cole Dunbar but she calls him "Clod" Dunbar in each and every book because someone, somewhere must think it's cute and funny.  It's neither, but it is childish.  

Kath is surrounded by a group of lovely friends who are all equally intelligent.  Until they get together and start calling themselves a "posse" and "operatives" and discussing "their investigations" and "their assignments".  It all sounds like a bunch of grown adults playing at being children pretending to be Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.  

It felt so silly, I just couldn't continue on.  But I did skip through and read the last few chapters; I think it's probably a pretty good mystery and readers of the series get to find out what happened to Geneva, the ghost that haunts the yarn shop.  Incidentally, she has become a very interesting character in her own right; a lot of my complaints about earlier books centered on the fact that she was just a big old sloppy mess of a ghost - every time you turned a page, she was crying rivers over something or other.  She's not like that anymore.  And it looks like Kath has finally started looking at those magical-dye journals of her grandmother's too.

All in all, I'm not going to rate this one because I think the series has merit as a cozy mystery series: it's well-written and well-plotted.  It might appeal to a lot of people who don't find insurmountable the same things I do.  But I am bummed - I was really excited about this series at the beginning and it's never fun to have your excitement fizzle out.

Ah, well....  Next!