Among the few active series of cozy mysteries I'm following, this one, and to be more precise, this book, is the one who steps up a gear. Indeed, no other books I've read had the guts to kill off the town Sheriff. To sum it up, Sheriff Grant is murdered and the heroine, Hannah's brother-in-law is suspected due to lack of alibi. He's suspended from work, by Hannah's beau, Mike. This is interesting. It would translate well to the screen as a television movie. Or as an animated series, if it were all up to me.
Like a classic hero, Hannah has well defined quests. She has to cater to the culinary needs of her geriatric (and methinks, highly detestable) cat. Secondly, she must solve the identity of the secret ingredient in a recipe that has a publishing deadline. Also, the main quest is that of course, the murder has to be solved. A minor quest, that of the precedents of Harrington, is not uncovered here. It will, no doubt, be in the next book, which I'm dying to read.
Hannah has green fingers it seems, for her workplace has the grapevine running through it lustily. This solves the need to juggle her work and her sleuthing. Detectives interrogate suspects, but Hannah talks to friends. That's what it looks like. The gradual progression in the case was more intriguing, interesting and intricate than ever before. There are no annoying characters this time. The author shows us new situations and uses barely used words. All of them were appealing to me. If the book was a hundred pages leaner, I'd rate this four stars or more. I liked the climax. For someone so quick, Hannah really put her life in jeopardy by taking a senseless risk. I'm amused at how casually Hannah and Andrea discuss her involvement in the case, forgetting that it's life-threatening at all times. I should have guessed the identity of the murderer, as it didn't take a genius to know. But I forgot who was who and I guessed a bit too late. Until next time.