Fool's Puzzle

In Earlene Fowler's Fool's Puzzle, the first installment in the Benni Harper cozy mystery series, this debut would keep you in suspense and care for the characters. Albenia "Benni" Harper is a widow and missing the love of her life. When she works at a museum for the craft show, she discovers the dead body of one of her closest friends. It had left her rattled and shaken to see her friend Marla died. While she did some snooping around, she ran into the new sheriff in town, Gabriel Ortiz, who gave Benni a hard time. While she couldn't think of anyone who would harm Marla, she had to deal with her cousin Rita and track her down to locate her for her aunt. Though she goes toe to toe with Ortiz, she ran into some interesting information that might have to do with her husband's death and her former in-law's ranching business. As she learned new information, she discovered a second dead body, someone else who worked for the museum. While Benni looks to connect the dots between the two murders, she gets closer to the truth on what's been going on behind the scenes and who was responsible for her husband's death. Behind the secrets and lies, she comes face to face with the culprit to find out why and deals things her way in an intense climax.

This was a great debut to the Benni Harper cozy mystery series. I did like Benni's name, which I found unusual and interesting. I did care for her and on how she dealt with so much going on from family life to what happened to work. I thought she was something else and someone we can root for. I've found Ortiz a pretty interesting character and a possible new love interest for Benni after they kissed toward the end. I did love the rural locations and crisp scenic settings in the Arkansas area for the series. This has plenty of action, a hint of suspense, lots of drama, and great sparks of mystery from start to finish.

Will you be there on Benni's side in Fool's Puzzle today?