Snow Place to Die

Bed-and-Breakfast Mysteries #13

by Mary Daheim

There’s snow place like homicideB&B hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn’s ready to hang up her oven mitts, but irrepressible Cousin Renie needs help catering the telephone company’s annual winter retreat at secluded Mountain Goat Lodge. The pay’s good, the scenery’s to die for—but they never figured there’d be a killer cooking up mischief among this innocuous stew of corporate-climbing phone company ding-a-lings. Unfortuantely, Judith and Renie’s discovery of the frozen, garroted remains of the previous company caterer—missing since last year’s shindig—suggests no less, since the same cast of characters is present this time around. It’s Dial “M” for Mountain Goat Murder, and a storm’s blowing in to boot—leaving Judith and Renie stranded with ten suspects and a corpse…and with nothing better to do than to reach out and touch a killer who’d like nothing better than to put two inquisitive cousins in the Deep Freeze.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Cozy, Fiction, Mystery Thriller

Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Mary Rene Richardson Daheim was an American writer of romance and mystery novels.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amateur sleuth and her friend go to an isolated lodge to cater for a dysfunctional bunch of executives. They get snowed in, and murders start to happen.

Nothing we haven't seen before, but entertaining.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boggles the mind and defies any kind of logic or rational thinking.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julia gets talked into being a caterer by Renie. It turns out to be a terrorizing experience. They go to a Lodge in the Mountains and when they were looking around the lodge, Renie fell in a frozen creek and Julia helped her get out. But then they both fall in and get soaked. But Julia notices something strange and it turns out to be a skeleton, that was tucked inside a cave. Read the book and count the carnage.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Daheim’s “Bed and Breakfast” mysteries always seem like more restrained West Coast versions of the kind of comedy mysteries that Joan Hess writes. There are almost always memorable characters but they are never quite as exaggerated as those in Hess’ novels. There are almost always comic situations, but they are more like the chuckles of “The Andy Griffith Show” than the outrageous guffaws of “Mama’s Family.” In short, there are times in Hess’ delightful works that I have to consciously suspend my disbelief to go on with the story, but I don’t ever remember consciously doing so in any of Daheim’s books.
Oh, sure. As with every mystery writer, there are those serendipitous (dare we say wildly improbable?) events that enable even ordinary humans to solve mysteries that are dumbfounding full-time professionals, but Daheim always seems to cast the ineffectiveness of the “pros from Dover” (or in this case, the legally-constituted authorities whether they be from the “big city” of Seattle or the county (in the case of her Alpine series) within the reality of heavy case loads and the probability of territorial/jurisdictional disputes. This seems more realistic to me than the dunderheaded Inspector Lestrades of many mysteries.
As for Snow Place to Die, this mystery takes me back to the days before the average person had a cellular phone. Although there were cell phones that we affectionately called “bricks” back in those days, Daheim does have a conceit to tell us why executives of a regional phone company didn’t have one with them on a leadership retreat up in the mountains. As with many older mysteries, one cellular phone would have ruined the entire story. One senses, immediately, from the cover and the first few paragraphs that this mystery will involve being snowbound and experiencing something potentially more lethal than cabin fever. The only thing is, I fell for the most obvious red herring of all. Spoiler Alert: The first body discovered is from an earlier time period. I really thought, for a time, the novel was going to focus on the mystery surrounding that body. Instead, Daheim started playing Ten Little Indians on us.
However, the book is so richly rendered in hues of misdirection and overlapping motives that I think it is one of the best pure mysteries of the series. Now, I might have liked it because I could identify with the cut-throat attitudes of the executives. I’ve seen it operate in international publishing operations, educational institutions, and churches/denominations, so I recognize this cavalier, unethical attitude of dealing with one’s co-workers. At times, the conversations between the executives may resemble satire or parody, but I’ve been involved in some of those discussions and victimized by some of them so I say they have verisimilitude.
As for the main cast of characters, we don’t have appearances by Gertrude and that Tasmanian devil disguised as a cat, Sweetums, but we do have a little interaction with Joe. We do have some wonderful interaction between our protagonist/innkeeper/caterer, Judith, and her cousin, Renie. In my personal opinion, this is the first book in the series where I’ve really seen Renie as more than Sancho Panza to Judith’s Quixote (or, since Judith really is competent, maybe I should say as more like the two Pats (Buttram and Brady) were to Roy Rogers, Buttram was to Gene Autrey, or California was to Hopalong Cassidy—sorry about the allusions to old western television shows and movies, but once I’d typed the Roy Rogers reference, it was Hoppy, Gene, and me all the way).
In short, reading this book (after a long time between “stays” at the famous “Bed and Breakfast” in Seattle) was a lot like a welcome reunion. Fortunately, none of my real-life reunions have had quite the body count that showed up in this one.

[L.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was better than many previous (though it was basically the exact same story as Major Vices). Judith was shockingly unannoying for the most part and Big Blue Chev played only a peripheral role. Two outstanding things. First, the phones are down for days and when Judith finds out the phones are back up and she makes 2 phone calls, both for solely idle chit chat, never mentioning that she's stranded in the mountains and people are being murdered right and left- but she does discuss how far up the snow comes on the statue in her backyard and the reservation system on her computer. Really. Second (and this was enough to make me shed a tear of joy) Big Blue Chev gets totaled at the end. I gave this book 4 stars just for that.

[VJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than the last book, that's for sure! I didn't see any of this coming, although I should have. This book humorously and sometimes bumblingly describes why I refuse to consider management. Dumb dumb dumb people who don't care about anything but wielding power and making money. Blech!

I was beginning to feel like someone made a new "Clue" movie starring Judith and Renie!

[Cozybooklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of this series and this is one of my favorites. I can't help but laugh out loud at some of the crazy and zany situations the cousins get caught up in. I love the cast of characters in this book.

[Marti]

Passed on to me from Mom.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellant storyline; kept good pace! I dont't like the main charectors husband--he is self-involved-YUK!

[Judym · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining little mystery story with lots of dead bodies.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

#13 in the Judith McMonigle Flynn bed and breakfast operator and amateur sleuth and her cousin Renie mystery series set in a Seattle suburb series. It is difficult to believe that people would put up with Judith's brazen sticking her nose into where she has no right to be and her, at times, rude and insensitive questioning.

Renie needs help catering the telephone company’s annual winter retreat at secluded Mountain Goat Lodge in the mountains east of Seattle and convinces Judith to do the catering due to the large payment and the promise they'd get there in the morning and leave in the late afternoon.

From their arrival on everything goes wrong. First they discover the body of the caterer of last years retreat who disappeared. Then a strong winter storm/blizzard traps them all at the lodge with no means to communicate with the outside world. Then executives start being murdered one-by-one which sounds a lot like Agatha's Christie's Ten Little Indians story.

[Holly]

Taking place in Washington state this series features Judith, a bed & breakfast and sometimes caterer, and her cousin Serena (Renie). The two go to a resort in the mountains to speak at (Renie) and cater (Judith, with Renie's help) a weekend phone company executives' retreat, but things go badly awry. For a while I thought it was a rewrite of "And Then There Were None." Not at all complimentary of corporate folks, but an interesting read.

[Noah Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Formulaic, and not very well written, and targeted more at middle aged women than it is at me. I knew all that going in though and I had a good time with it! Daheim keeps things interesting with a surprisingly high body-count and enough fun characters that you want to know what happens next. Also appreciated the portrayal of all corporate executives as absolute psychopaths.

[Shannie Joy Kosman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first portion of the book I was really enjoying and thought I was reading a solid four star. This author either hates large corporations, hates phone companies, hates executives in these companies, or a little from each column. I do enjoy the relationship between Judith and Renie. An entertaining read.

[Clare · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read several of the books in this series and I have to say this was the worst. The plot dragged to the point that I had to really force myself to finish it. I may be done with Daheim's Bed and Breakfast books.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little creepy how blase these folks were about their colleagues were being killed off ... but I think that was the point of the story. Power can be dehumanizing, and it needs to be moderated with humanity.

[Linda E.Rowey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Improbable story. It was too long with too many deaths. If the author had stopped after the first one or two, let the characters sift through the clues, and then discover “who done it” it may have been readable.

[Cassie Luellman]

Dnf @20% This book came out in 1998 so I expected it to be a bit outdated. I didn’t expect for a dead body to be found after a year and the reason no one was worried when he went missing is because he was gay and “given to... following his special star.” Ugh no thank you.

[HopeF · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up. This book, as a mystery, is barey serviceable. The characters are more hollow caricature than developed personas. The plot and final confrontation rely on coincidence and extreme versions of the attitude toward the C-Suite that seems to be the novel's true theme and purpose.

[Susan Swansburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

not really my thing. I struggle a bit to finish this

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 ⭐️

[Kshydog · Rating 2 out of 5]

Typical for this author. Result a little different. More murders than normal - reminded me of “Ten Little Indians” where people kept dying.

[Vicki Gooding · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bed and Breakfast books are dynamite. Love the cousins. Read it before but forgot to review. Read it again and loved it just as much the 2nd time.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heh, I thought this one was kind of fun, transferring a bit into horror territory, and maybe a bit of examination of social structures?

[Ms Abarca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic mystery with all the suspects locked away at a snowy lodge.

[Rosanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good mystery read!

An after the holidays whodunnit involving people trapped together after a snowstorm while one by one, the people in the inn are dying.

[Alicia Smith-Turley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cozy mystery

This was a nice relaxing read. Good mystery with Nice storyline. Not to much gore. Those cousins worked well together!

[Georgina Rogers]

Enjoyable

Enjoyable slow moving story. A lot of murders in a short time. Not bloody for those who eschew blood or graphic violence.

[Jennifer S. Alderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun locked-room cozy mystery. This is a new-to-me author and I will be reading more of her work :)

[Christina Cueto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable read, but almost too much murder.