May Day

Welcome to a new kind of cozy mystery, when there's a murder every month. When you think of May Day, you'll think about the call for help, like in a distress signal or the first day of May, when there's a parade and a dance. Well, for Jess Lourey's May Day, the first book in the Murder-by-Month mystery series, her heroine Mira James sent out her own SOS. When she returned back to her home small town of Battle Lake, Minnesota, who said you can't go home again, she got a new job as the librarian at the library and discovered a dead body in plain sight. We learned about Mira's past with her father and her troubled adolescent years, when we found out about Mira's connection to the deceased. And from there, she was on the hunt for clues on why the state's hero was killed and with what motives. Jealousy? Greed? Or something else entirely, that may or may not stem from the past. She'd gotten to know the people in Battle Lake, its history of the land, and the residents hidden secrets. She became closer to the truth, until someone sent her a message to back off, before she's next. What a shocking twist in the end!

I loved the concept of having a murder every month, even if it corresponded with a holiday or not, along with the seasons. And to have the setting in a library made it even homier and better. I did feel bad for Mira, when she found Jeff dead. I didn't like his ex-girlfriend, who was a bit much of a drama queen. We cared about Mira and her journey for justice as well. This was a page turner that kept you hooked into suspense to find out who had done it and why.

Ready for a  new cozy? Give this one a try today!