I was quickly hooked on author Alexia Gordon’s Gethsemane Brown Mystery series and so was eager to dive in to this, Fatality in F, the fourth book in the series.
It’s vacation time for Gethsemane Brown and she’s looking forward to a relaxing time with only a little performing – this at the opening ceremony for the annual Rose & Garden Show, where her friend Frankie Grennan has entered a hybrid rose into the competition. But when Frankie’s strongest competitor winds up dead, Frankie is the prime suspect. It will be up to Gethsemane and her spirit friend to clear Frankie’s name and to keep the annual Rose & Garden Show smelling like … well … a bed of roses.
I really fell in love with this series right from the start. Gethsemane’s intelligence and talent set her apart from all the other amateur sleuth’s I’ve encountered in my reading journey, and the spirit of the once famous composer Eamon McCarthy added a touch of paranormal and whimsy that made this series fun.
But we lose too much of it here.
Whereas in the previous books it is only Gethsemane who can solve the crimes because of her unique talents, with some help from Eamon, here we have a case that doesn’t involve music and anyone with an interest could come up with the solution – no special skills required.
Of the four books in the series now, this one feels the most like a ‘cozy’ mystery – which does NOT have as much interest for me, though I understand that there are a lot of cozy mystery readers out there.
While the plot was well developed, I mostly found this to be a very average read and a story that could have used any amateur mystery sleuth as the protagonist, but what I like about Gethsemane is that she isn’t any amateur sleuth, and so I look forward to getting her back to what she does best.
Looking for a good book? Fatality in F by Alexia Gordon is the 4th book in the Gethsemane Brown Mystery series and has the most ‘cozy’ feel and has the least amount of connection to the other books in the series to date.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.
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Fatality in F
author: Alexia Gordon
series: Gethsemane Brown Mysteries #4
publisher: Henery Press
ISBN: 1635114624
hardcover, 240 pages
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