Murder by Death

This is one of those series: I can't say it's at all well-written, but I can't stop reading it either.  I read Sweet Pepper Hero with the intent of figuring out what it is that keeps me coming back even though the writing drives me just short of crazy.  

The writing is choppy, with short sentences and color commentary added in awkwardly; in many ways, it reads more like a middle school or maybe early ESL level of writing.  This is probably my biggest complaint.  I've always chalked it up to J.J. Cook being a pseudonym for a husband/wife writing team, Joyce and Jim Lavene; I figured something got lost in the team effort.  Sadly, Joyce Lavene passed away a few months ago; if the series continues at all it will be just Jim Lavene's voice and it will be interesting to see if that changes the narrative.

The story starts off oddly: I get the impression that this book was meant to have a different plot when they wrote the cliffhanger into the last book, so the first few chapters of Sweet Pepper Hero were spent rapidly "solving" that mystery.  It was anti-climatic and again...awkward.

There's also some woeful editing/copyediting, including missing words and sentences that just don't make sense.

It should by all rights go in the big black box, but no, it's staying.  In spite of the awkward writing, the Lavene's can create a great story and some solid mystery plotting, although Stella pulls such an insanely off-the-charts TSTL stunt at the end she honestly deserved to get pushed off the side of a mountain.  That move was contrary to the intelligent, stubborn and responsible persona the authors had, up until that moment, built for Stella.  Then there's Eric.  He's a ghost, but if a ghost has to haunt your house, this is the one you want doing the haunting.  He cooks, he cleans, he makes sure the light is on and the door open when you come home at night and he's a strapping 6'5" tall blonde.  Yes please.  

The mystery plotting was really well done and some very nice slight of hand was done that lead me off in a different direction entirely.  The ending was quite dramatic for a cozy too, but it's the characters and the setting that are going to keep these books on the shelf and me buying the fifth book, if a fifth book is coming.  But mostly, it's going to be Eric.  ;)