5 Hoots

Before I get started, I wanted to thank Netgalley for giving me an advanced copy of this book because I really am not sure this book would have been on my radar. As you may already know, I am a sucker for a great cozy mystery! This year I have read a lot of them and have realized that for me a good cozy needs to be grounded in reality….or just totally full of magic, there is no middle ground for me. This book is an example of a cozy that is ground in the real world.

In this cozy mystery a skeleton is found on a local farm that has a connection to a commune that once existed in 60s. Amy, the local librarian, decides to try and figure out who the skeleton belongs to in order to help clear the name of her best friends family. You see, back in the 60’s her best friend’s (named Sunny) grandparents ran a hippie commune where peace, love, sex, and drugs were a regular thing. Sunny’s grandparents ask Amy to try and get in touch with their old friends to warn them that the cops were going to start asking questions. Many of the old commune members grew up to have very reputable lives and having the cops start revealing their past could cause all of that to go away. Amy figured that this was one of the best ways to try to figure out the truth but she never imagined that it would result in putting her own life in danger.

Gilbert did a great job making sure that if you have not read the earlier books in this series you wouldn’t be lost. She makes it clear who everyone is to each other without slowing the speed of the story down. The general pace of the book itself was decent as well and there were only a couple of slow sections. There were actually a few intense moments in the book as well as an additional murder. What was most shocking was finding out who the original murderer was. It also is heartbreaking when you find out what caused him to be murdered.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and I think it was really well done. The motive for murder, how the murderer got in contact with the victims….and the additional murders that were done in the present were very well done. As mentioned before I was shocked when everything was revealed in the final chapters. I am glad that this book introduce me to Victoria Gilbert, I will definitely be reading her other books.