Murder by Death

Small southern town with small-town southern charm. A lingerie store that specialises in vintage lingerie. A world travelled aunt and a good looking love interest. A perfect setup. Sadly, the perfect setup is hopelessly marred by really bad plotting and, although to a much lesser degree, stilted writing.

This town the author has created (I know, Paris, TN really does exists, but this Paris is a creation of the author) is great: interesting and fun characters you find yourself liking. But the writing itself comes across stilted and un-natural, and it lacks the flow of authentic conversation a lot of the time. In a really well written book, I don't even notice the 'he said' or 'she said', but I found them really noticeable in this story.

As to the plot, well, as with the first book, I knew the murderer and why from the very first moment possible.

It was just so obvious that the fronting of additional suspects just wore my patience thin and I wanted the book to be over with.

It's a shame, because I really want to like these books - they have all the earmarks of what would normally be fun, enjoyable reads. But unless the plotting gets much more sophisticated, this will be a series I'll have to pass by.