Sunday, May 26, 2019

Off the Bookshelf: THE GOSSIPING GOURMET, by Martin Brown

Free ebook from Kindle.

Part of my "homework" to try my hand at writing cozies is, of course, to read gobs of them. This is one of them.

A Murder in Marin mystery -- the book, and subsequent books in the series, are set in the San Francisco, Marin, Sausalito area, with a close-knit (dare I say cannibalistic?) social group.

This is one of those mysteries where you're almost chanting under your breath, "Get on with it. Kill the creepazoid!"

The gossiping gourmet of the title is an arrogant jerk who knows how to play with all the society dames and manipulate everyone, to essentially commit murder through gossip. He's out to get anyone who doesn't kowtow to him and recognize what a wonderful person he is -- and when a newcomer to the community is offered a prestigious position that he wanted for himself (why didn't he just SAY he wanted it, instead of waiting for people to beg him to take the position?), he waits for the perfect opportunity to set about destroying him. And the self-important movers-and-shakers are his eager dupes.

So when he ends up dead, naturally his latest flaying victim is the first suspect. But of course ... well, I'm not going to give away who really "dun" it, but it's someone you'd never suspect. Of course.

Much thanks to the author for teaching me a great deal about interaction between characters and creating the perfect storm within which a murder takes place!

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