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Nora Best #1
Best Laid Plans: Nora Best Mysteries, Book 1
In the first of a new mystery series, we meet Nora Best as she flees her old life, cheating husband and all, and takes to the road with an Airstream trailer.
Nora Best is the envy of her friends. She's just turned fifty and has traded in her home with The Perfect-Ass Husband for an Airstream trailer and an adventure of a lifetime across the US.
But during their leaving party, Nora finds her husband in a compromising position with a friend. Storming out of the party she jumps into her truck with no idea how to tow the Airstream or where she's going.
Nora ends up in a campground in the mountains of Wyoming, drowning her sorrows with its managers, Brad and Miranda. When she is woken by a frantic Miranda after Brad has disappeared and bloodstains have been found around the campsite, Nora finds herself caught up in an adventure she could never have expected . . . facing a charge of murder.
Nora Best is the envy of her friends. She's just turned fifty and has traded in her home with The Perfect-Ass Husband for an Airstream trailer and an adventure of a lifetime across the US.
But during their leaving party, Nora finds her husband in a compromising position with a friend. Storming out of the party she jumps into her truck with no idea how to tow the Airstream or where she's going.
Nora ends up in a campground in the mountains of Wyoming, drowning her sorrows with its managers, Brad and Miranda. When she is woken by a frantic Miranda after Brad has disappeared and bloodstains have been found around the campsite, Nora finds herself caught up in an adventure she could never have expected . . . facing a charge of murder.
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First published January 1, 2021
37 people are currently reading
282 people want to read
About the author
Gwen Florio
16 books156 followersGwen Florio is the author of the Lola Wicks crime series ("gutsy," says the New York Times) as well as SILENT HEARTS (Atria, 2018), a standalone set in Afghanistan. A new crime series starts in November 2020 with the publication of Best Laid Plans (Severn House). Her first novel, MONTANA, won the Pinckley Prize for debut crime fiction, and a High Plains Book Award. Florio is a veteran journalist who has covered stories ranging from the mass shooting at Columbine High School and the Oklahoma City bombing trials, to the glitz of the Miss America pageant and the more practical Miss Navajo contest, whose participants slaughter a sheep. She's reported from Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, among other countries, as well as Lost Springs, Wyo. (population three). She lives in Missoula, Montana. She is represented by Richard Curtis,
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
November 14, 2020
Nora and Joe have sold their home, and taken early retirement, (though Nora has just signed a book contract to write about their upcoming travels). They are throwing the party to end all parties, prior to them setting off for a new life, in their classy, but expensive Airstream trailer - that is until Nora catches Joe in a compromising situation with his best friend’s wife Charlotte.
Distressed and not thinking straight, she grabs the keys to the Airstream, leaves Denver, and drives through the night and finds herself on a campsite in the middle of The Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming.
The area is idyllic, and Nora spends her first alcohol fuelled evening as dinner guest of the campground hosts Miranda and Brad Gardner. That night however, Brad disappears in the middle of the night leaving just a small patch of blood and a torn piece of shirt outside his camper.
It’s suspected initially that a bear may have taken him, and the search parties are out in the forest for days - that is until the local sheriff decides to hold Nora in connection with the disappearance, and possible death of Brad Gardner.
The backdrop is evocatively described, with the campsite and forest as centrepiece, and the nearest inhabited area giving a sense of small town claustrophobia.
Nora makes for an interesting character, who has to face up to some pretty challenging situations, ones that far exceed the travel book that she was originally commissioned to write, and it actually made for a unique and enjoyable read.
* My thanks to Severn House Publishers for an ARC, for which I have given an honest unbiased review in exchange *
Distressed and not thinking straight, she grabs the keys to the Airstream, leaves Denver, and drives through the night and finds herself on a campsite in the middle of The Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming.
The area is idyllic, and Nora spends her first alcohol fuelled evening as dinner guest of the campground hosts Miranda and Brad Gardner. That night however, Brad disappears in the middle of the night leaving just a small patch of blood and a torn piece of shirt outside his camper.
It’s suspected initially that a bear may have taken him, and the search parties are out in the forest for days - that is until the local sheriff decides to hold Nora in connection with the disappearance, and possible death of Brad Gardner.
The backdrop is evocatively described, with the campsite and forest as centrepiece, and the nearest inhabited area giving a sense of small town claustrophobia.
Nora makes for an interesting character, who has to face up to some pretty challenging situations, ones that far exceed the travel book that she was originally commissioned to write, and it actually made for a unique and enjoyable read.
* My thanks to Severn House Publishers for an ARC, for which I have given an honest unbiased review in exchange *
February 2, 2021
HAPPY RELEASE DAY!
I was excited to see that Florio started a new series, this time with Nora Best, who just turned 50 and had planned on quitting her day job and traveling the country with her husband. They sold their house and used the advance for Nora’s second nonfiction book to buy a top-of-the-line Airstream. When Nora finds her allegedly perfect husband banging the neighbor on the night of their going away party, she takes off in the truck, dragging the Airstream behind her.
She ends up in Wyoming at an out-of-the way campground with friendly park managers Brad and Miranda. But when Brad goes missing, the clueless town sheriff accuses Nora of murder. Not only to clear her name but to survive, Nora needs to find out what happened to Brad.
This is a fun mystery, but it’s also an insightful novel about second chances and trying to heal with the help of nature. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.
I was excited to see that Florio started a new series, this time with Nora Best, who just turned 50 and had planned on quitting her day job and traveling the country with her husband. They sold their house and used the advance for Nora’s second nonfiction book to buy a top-of-the-line Airstream. When Nora finds her allegedly perfect husband banging the neighbor on the night of their going away party, she takes off in the truck, dragging the Airstream behind her.
She ends up in Wyoming at an out-of-the way campground with friendly park managers Brad and Miranda. But when Brad goes missing, the clueless town sheriff accuses Nora of murder. Not only to clear her name but to survive, Nora needs to find out what happened to Brad.
This is a fun mystery, but it’s also an insightful novel about second chances and trying to heal with the help of nature. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.
January 24, 2021
Folks, I have just been to crazy town and it was a wild, wonderful trip! Take one 50-year old woman giving up the corporate life to travel the country with her loving husband in their new truck and silver Airstream, Electra, throw in husband’s infidelity, followed by wife’s madcap escape in said truck and camper, and you have the recipe for a raucous adventure!
The wife, Nora, ends up in a Wyoming campsite where she intends to lick her proverbial wounds for a few days. What ensues are a man’s suspicious death by bear, her arrest for killing said man, a strange woman hiker, and a lovely wildlife officer who helps her find her own way. She quickly learns she has the inner strength to survive, especially after one harrowing night in the woods fighting an unknown enemy and the elements.
I devoured this book and I thank Net Galley and the publisher, Severn House, for the opportunity to read it for my honest opinion. I gave it four stars and look forward to the next book in the series!
The wife, Nora, ends up in a Wyoming campsite where she intends to lick her proverbial wounds for a few days. What ensues are a man’s suspicious death by bear, her arrest for killing said man, a strange woman hiker, and a lovely wildlife officer who helps her find her own way. She quickly learns she has the inner strength to survive, especially after one harrowing night in the woods fighting an unknown enemy and the elements.
I devoured this book and I thank Net Galley and the publisher, Severn House, for the opportunity to read it for my honest opinion. I gave it four stars and look forward to the next book in the series!
March 29, 2021
I loved BEST LAID PLANS. And I was tremendously frustrated by it. Do those two things sound like they’re in conflict? Maybe, but I’ll just say this: I had a hell of a good time getting to the unsatisfying part, and I don’t regret a millisecond of it.
Gwen Florio, in a departure from her Lola Wicks series, about a seen-it-all East Coast war-correspondent journalist transplanted to Montana (which turns out in many ways to be just as treacherous as Afghanistan), here stakes out new territory. Nora Best is a smart and sophisticated woman who somehow stumbled into middle-middle age with a screaming shortage of practical survival skills. That schism becomes a problem in the first pages, when, on horrified impulse, Nora takes off in the truck and trailer she and her husband has bought as their hit-the-road retirement plan. Why? Because she catches him boinking his best friend’s wife at their farewell party.
Nora makes things worse by impulsively camping in Wyoming next to a couple whose male half goes missing that night. At first, the disappearance seems like a bear attack, but the missing man’s bloody shirt turns up in Nora’s trailer, and suddenly she looks like an unhinged shrew out for revenge sex—and revenge on the opposite sex. And while she’s trying to prove her innocence, Nora wonders who she can trust—who she can trust herself to trust—from among a colorful cast of characters circling around her: Caleb, the appealing park ranger who appears to be an ally; Miranda, the surviving half of the couple; and Forever, an eccentric lone female hiker whose extreme self-reliance could be a cover for a series of “lot lizard” trucker killings. Oh, and then there’s Nora’s husband, who turns up to sow more chaos as soon as news of Nora’s arrest hits the internet.
That’s a lot of plot to work through, as well as a lot of characters arcs, and that’s the problem with BEST LAID PLANS — it bites off more of both than it’s willing to chew through. For the first two-thirds of the book, the tension is off the hook — Nora’s city brains and country naivete make for an appealing and emotionally compelling combination as her troubles mount, as much from her own screwups as an apparently clever attempt to set her up.
But then things go further off the rails when Nora is kidnapped in the middle of the night and marched off to her demise by the killer. Only, ridiculously, the killer fails to follow through on the actual killing part (even though they succeed in doing so in the exact same fashion with a man). That’s not even a bit plausible, and particularly frustrating for the reader is the sheer number of pages devoted to this implausibility. Then follows an inch of climax — with one of those “key characters just somehow happen to turn up in the same spot at the same time independently of one another” twists that drive me nuts — followed by a mile of exposition, in which much of the action that readers deserved to see onstage happens in the darkness of the wings.
That’s bad enough, but in the process of puree-ing through the plot from that point to its resolution, a number of character arcs are left hanging:
• Florio goes to great lengths to explore Nora’s issues with her marriage, but rather than having the two of them work through those issues in reader-pleasing fashion, she dispatches with the problem via a parsley-like sprig of offstage plot. It would have been much more satisfying for them, and for Nora’s character arc (in what appears to be a potential series), to have an honest, direct reckoning with their wreckage before she can truly move on from it.
• At one point, Nora is rescued by the husband of the cheating best friend, but they barely address their mutual marital grief, and the man is swept offstage, resurfacing much later only in a brief bit of exposition. It feels as if a promising character-development moment — for Nora as well as the man — was needlessly left on the table.
• Part of what makes Nora so appealing is her gradually dawning understanding of her own missteps and weaknesses. In jail, she awakens to a new empathy for what it means to be unjustly accused — because, in a past life as a public-relationships specialist for a university, she reminds the reader more than once, she helped save the reputations of some student-athletes accused of rape by sandbagging the perceived credibility of the victim. But for all that fresh enlightenment, we see no later interest from Nora in righting that wrong before she moves along.
But a third act that goes awry is neither uncommon — unfortunately — nor unforgivable. Especially because just about everything preceding it is immensely enjoyable. Nora Best is a great character, a victim of herself as much as of anyone else, and more than willing to own it as soon as unrelenting circumstances force her into unwilling epiphanies.
I fear I’m being too hard on BEST LAID PLANS, because it’s a book I would recommend for the sheer pleasures of its first 66 percent. But I think somebody at some point has to point out what seems to be a conspiracy of complacency in contemporary thriller publishing: that it doesn’t matter how the third act plays out if you’ve gotten readers hooked on the first pages. The book is sold at that point, right? And who cares about reviews, right? So, so what, right? But third acts that do not fully honor everything put forth for the reader’s contemplation and examination in the first two should not be seen as acceptable, let alone desirable. A book can only be considered truly good if it is good all the way through, and I’ve read too d*mn many of these lately, and too d*mn many of them have gotten performative tongue-bathings online, and I fear any passive-aggressive signal from the ramparts of publishing to the contrary is eventually going to put readers off books and push them toward more reliable forms of entertainment, like TikFreakingTok.
It isn’t entirely fair to pin that on Gwen Florio or this four-star novel — there are a few better contemporary thrillers, and a whole lot of ones that are a while lot worse — but, somebody’s got to shout this from the mountaintops at some point, and I guess this is the rocky promontory from which I’ve decided to make my stand. To finish strong in the service of strong finishes.
All that said, I’ll close with praise. One of my personal measures for a book’s awesomeness is its quotability, its propensity for putting forth digestible little nuggets of transcendent evocation and insight. BEST LAID PLANS has dozens of these; Gwen Florio spent decades in news journalism, and unsurprisingly, one of her greatest gifts as a writer is a flair for crystalline distillation of rich human insight. Among my favorites:
• “Her wedding ring with its engraved infinity sign – because of course theirs was to be the rare lasting marriage – sailed out the window near the big limestone bluffs at Chugwater in Wyoming.”
• “A safe guess that newly single, toweringly pissed-off women on the cusp of their sixth decade were nobody’s idea of a desirable demographic. So, scratch the freelance gigs.”
• “In her experience, ugly people turned out one of two ways – snake-mean, coiled and ready to strike at a world looking askance at their appearance, or almost overly kind, taking care never to inflict the kind of pain they endured daily. Caleb appeared to be the latter, though without the wounded aspect that sometimes accompanied those people, his brown-eyed gaze direct, curious and entirely lacking in judgment.”
• “Nora held her breath. You could tell a lot about a person by their attitude toward pie.”
• “‘Most people pile on too-big pieces too fast and wonder why the fire goes out. Something you could apply to a lot of things in life.”
• “Nora knew enough – in her former life, she’d occasionally binged on crime shows and mystery novels – to shut up.”
• “When Freud invented the term penis envy, he probably didn’t realize it had everything to do with women wishing that we, too, could just take care of our business standing up.”
• “Me, I’ve got a rule. Never sleep with a guy better looking than I am. They’re lousy lays. Too many girls throwing themselves at them, never had to work for it.”
• “In Nora’s experience, people who proclaimed marital bliss rarely were in its throes.”
• “In the ensuing hours, Nora learned more about the nature of terror. That, over time and distance, it can very much turn into something akin to boredom; that as weariness sets in, a deep and abiding desire for sleep can replace the mental metronome plea for life.”
And that’s why, ultimately, I recommend BEST LAID PLANS.
Gwen Florio, in a departure from her Lola Wicks series, about a seen-it-all East Coast war-correspondent journalist transplanted to Montana (which turns out in many ways to be just as treacherous as Afghanistan), here stakes out new territory. Nora Best is a smart and sophisticated woman who somehow stumbled into middle-middle age with a screaming shortage of practical survival skills. That schism becomes a problem in the first pages, when, on horrified impulse, Nora takes off in the truck and trailer she and her husband has bought as their hit-the-road retirement plan. Why? Because she catches him boinking his best friend’s wife at their farewell party.
Nora makes things worse by impulsively camping in Wyoming next to a couple whose male half goes missing that night. At first, the disappearance seems like a bear attack, but the missing man’s bloody shirt turns up in Nora’s trailer, and suddenly she looks like an unhinged shrew out for revenge sex—and revenge on the opposite sex. And while she’s trying to prove her innocence, Nora wonders who she can trust—who she can trust herself to trust—from among a colorful cast of characters circling around her: Caleb, the appealing park ranger who appears to be an ally; Miranda, the surviving half of the couple; and Forever, an eccentric lone female hiker whose extreme self-reliance could be a cover for a series of “lot lizard” trucker killings. Oh, and then there’s Nora’s husband, who turns up to sow more chaos as soon as news of Nora’s arrest hits the internet.
That’s a lot of plot to work through, as well as a lot of characters arcs, and that’s the problem with BEST LAID PLANS — it bites off more of both than it’s willing to chew through. For the first two-thirds of the book, the tension is off the hook — Nora’s city brains and country naivete make for an appealing and emotionally compelling combination as her troubles mount, as much from her own screwups as an apparently clever attempt to set her up.
But then things go further off the rails when Nora is kidnapped in the middle of the night and marched off to her demise by the killer. Only, ridiculously, the killer fails to follow through on the actual killing part (even though they succeed in doing so in the exact same fashion with a man). That’s not even a bit plausible, and particularly frustrating for the reader is the sheer number of pages devoted to this implausibility. Then follows an inch of climax — with one of those “key characters just somehow happen to turn up in the same spot at the same time independently of one another” twists that drive me nuts — followed by a mile of exposition, in which much of the action that readers deserved to see onstage happens in the darkness of the wings.
That’s bad enough, but in the process of puree-ing through the plot from that point to its resolution, a number of character arcs are left hanging:
• Florio goes to great lengths to explore Nora’s issues with her marriage, but rather than having the two of them work through those issues in reader-pleasing fashion, she dispatches with the problem via a parsley-like sprig of offstage plot. It would have been much more satisfying for them, and for Nora’s character arc (in what appears to be a potential series), to have an honest, direct reckoning with their wreckage before she can truly move on from it.
• At one point, Nora is rescued by the husband of the cheating best friend, but they barely address their mutual marital grief, and the man is swept offstage, resurfacing much later only in a brief bit of exposition. It feels as if a promising character-development moment — for Nora as well as the man — was needlessly left on the table.
• Part of what makes Nora so appealing is her gradually dawning understanding of her own missteps and weaknesses. In jail, she awakens to a new empathy for what it means to be unjustly accused — because, in a past life as a public-relationships specialist for a university, she reminds the reader more than once, she helped save the reputations of some student-athletes accused of rape by sandbagging the perceived credibility of the victim. But for all that fresh enlightenment, we see no later interest from Nora in righting that wrong before she moves along.
But a third act that goes awry is neither uncommon — unfortunately — nor unforgivable. Especially because just about everything preceding it is immensely enjoyable. Nora Best is a great character, a victim of herself as much as of anyone else, and more than willing to own it as soon as unrelenting circumstances force her into unwilling epiphanies.
I fear I’m being too hard on BEST LAID PLANS, because it’s a book I would recommend for the sheer pleasures of its first 66 percent. But I think somebody at some point has to point out what seems to be a conspiracy of complacency in contemporary thriller publishing: that it doesn’t matter how the third act plays out if you’ve gotten readers hooked on the first pages. The book is sold at that point, right? And who cares about reviews, right? So, so what, right? But third acts that do not fully honor everything put forth for the reader’s contemplation and examination in the first two should not be seen as acceptable, let alone desirable. A book can only be considered truly good if it is good all the way through, and I’ve read too d*mn many of these lately, and too d*mn many of them have gotten performative tongue-bathings online, and I fear any passive-aggressive signal from the ramparts of publishing to the contrary is eventually going to put readers off books and push them toward more reliable forms of entertainment, like TikFreakingTok.
It isn’t entirely fair to pin that on Gwen Florio or this four-star novel — there are a few better contemporary thrillers, and a whole lot of ones that are a while lot worse — but, somebody’s got to shout this from the mountaintops at some point, and I guess this is the rocky promontory from which I’ve decided to make my stand. To finish strong in the service of strong finishes.
All that said, I’ll close with praise. One of my personal measures for a book’s awesomeness is its quotability, its propensity for putting forth digestible little nuggets of transcendent evocation and insight. BEST LAID PLANS has dozens of these; Gwen Florio spent decades in news journalism, and unsurprisingly, one of her greatest gifts as a writer is a flair for crystalline distillation of rich human insight. Among my favorites:
• “Her wedding ring with its engraved infinity sign – because of course theirs was to be the rare lasting marriage – sailed out the window near the big limestone bluffs at Chugwater in Wyoming.”
• “A safe guess that newly single, toweringly pissed-off women on the cusp of their sixth decade were nobody’s idea of a desirable demographic. So, scratch the freelance gigs.”
• “In her experience, ugly people turned out one of two ways – snake-mean, coiled and ready to strike at a world looking askance at their appearance, or almost overly kind, taking care never to inflict the kind of pain they endured daily. Caleb appeared to be the latter, though without the wounded aspect that sometimes accompanied those people, his brown-eyed gaze direct, curious and entirely lacking in judgment.”
• “Nora held her breath. You could tell a lot about a person by their attitude toward pie.”
• “‘Most people pile on too-big pieces too fast and wonder why the fire goes out. Something you could apply to a lot of things in life.”
• “Nora knew enough – in her former life, she’d occasionally binged on crime shows and mystery novels – to shut up.”
• “When Freud invented the term penis envy, he probably didn’t realize it had everything to do with women wishing that we, too, could just take care of our business standing up.”
• “Me, I’ve got a rule. Never sleep with a guy better looking than I am. They’re lousy lays. Too many girls throwing themselves at them, never had to work for it.”
• “In Nora’s experience, people who proclaimed marital bliss rarely were in its throes.”
• “In the ensuing hours, Nora learned more about the nature of terror. That, over time and distance, it can very much turn into something akin to boredom; that as weariness sets in, a deep and abiding desire for sleep can replace the mental metronome plea for life.”
And that’s why, ultimately, I recommend BEST LAID PLANS.
October 27, 2020
To be honest, this is the kind of book I’d normally pass by on my Netgalley browsing, A Severn publishers thriller tend to be a pretty mediocre and formulaic, but it grabbed me with a dream, a dream of hitting the road in an RV. In this case, a very fancy one. Slick and shiny metal happy place to call your own. Like living inside you’re a very commodious robot. In a word, awesome. And so Nora Best and her hunky spouse with the perfect ass (direct quote) have decided to start living their dreams. They sold their place and bought another one on wheels and a truck to drag it around. But when at their going away send off, Nora discovers her man’s perfect ass between the chunky thighs of his best friend’s wife, she takes off on her own. Barely able to drive the thing, she manages to end up camping in Wyoming, when she promptly finds herself accused of kidnapping and possible murder. In facts, she steps into a large steaming pile of doodoo, one that has nothing to do with local bears no matter how much everyone seems to want to blame it on them. Suddenly the dream turns into a nightmare and Nora has to go into survival mode just to get through it all. Pretty dynamic, but those looking for a suspense thriller might be disappointed, the plot twists here are about as subtle as a 100K worth of a luxury RV with custom artwork in Wyoming. The entire thing is super predictable to most anyone with triple digit IQ and from lamentably early on in the book too. Presumably not to Nora, it takes her a while to get up to speed, but then again she’s right in the midst of it, Also, she is surprisingly dense for a seemingly smart person, which results in doing things of (her words) monumental stupidity. Signing off her truck and beloved RV to a random person she’s just met who is in obvious need of money is pretty epic. You’d think it would make Nora a pretty tedious protagonist, but she actually does all right. It’s nice and refreshing to have a protagonist of a certain age, although savvy and intelligence don’t always figure into it, there’s still a certain level of self possession the hipper youth might not have. The entire book actually has a nice steady mature thing going on, it might have easily veered into chicklit or women’s fiction, but it admirably manages not to. It stays away from cozy in the same way too. There’s a certain degree of quaintness that comes from writing small town set fiction, but overall it toes the line and stays pretty decent, consistently, writing wise. Plotting, yeah, that might have used some work, it’s all just entirely too…unsurprising. But it gets by instead on character appeal and narrative quality and, of course, the dream. The shiny dream of free roaming. Read it not as a suspense thriller, but as a character drama with crime elements for maximum effect. Reasonably entertaining and a pretty quick read. Well done middle of the road sort of diversion. a book that absolutely doesn't need to be a series, but almost certainly shall be. And here I am, first person to be reviewing this. Thanks Netgalley.
October 4, 2022
3.5. Nora Best flees her "perfect life". After discovering her husband cheating on her, in her bathroom. She flees in the new Airstreamer - the one she and her husband had newly purchased. Ostensibly so they could travel and explore the USA.
First camp stop a murder occurs. Nora's Airstreamer is found to have "evidence" of her as the murderer! Then worse happens!
Thoroughly enjoyable.
Unputdownable.
First camp stop a murder occurs. Nora's Airstreamer is found to have "evidence" of her as the murderer! Then worse happens!
Thoroughly enjoyable.
Unputdownable.
February 14, 2021
Just turned 50, Nora Best is about to undergo a massive life change. She and her husband Joe have quit their jobs, sold their home and bought a beautiful Airstream trailer and a truck to pull it, trading in the corporate rat race for life on the open road. Until, at their going-away party, Nora catches Joe in the bathroom with his former boss’s wife.
Suddenly, everything is up-ended. On impulse, Nora takes off with the truck and the Airstream, driving through the night and finally winding up in a remote campground in deepest Wyoming, parking up next door to sweet Miranda and her handsome husband Brad, the camp managers. The couple are kind to her, but things take a turn for the weird after Nora’s first night when Brad disappears, leaving behind only a massive bloodstain on the grass. Has he really been eaten by a bear? Nora planned to move on, but Miranda’s distraught, she can’t just leave her. And then suddenly, Nora’s a suspect…
This had some really fun twists and turns. Nora’s in a state of shock for pretty much the entire book, and her state of mind does lead her to do some things which someone operating entirely rationally might not do, but as I said, she’s in a state of shock and though she doesn’t realise it until later, she’s being deliberately kept that way, off balance and having to react to the blows that keep coming.
Nora’s set up as a sympathetic protagonist from the beginning when she finds Joe cheating on her, and to be honest, it was necessary, because there were definitely places where I struggled to like her. She came off as entitled and rich (and considering both she and Joe had good careers and no kids, how the hell did they end up at 50 with no assets but the car and trailer?) and there was a bit of backstory mentioned a couple times where in her previous job, she apparently helped four male students ‘spin’ their way out of a gang rape charge, which absolutely horrified me. It didn’t seem necessary and it REALLY needed cutting, because I was suddenly very much not rooting for her when I read that. I wondered if the ‘villain’ was going to turn out to be the victim or a family member looking for revenge, actually, but it seemed to be a red herring because it didn’t come up again.
This is the first in a series about Nora - presumably travelling around with her Airstream and stumbling into crimes - and while it’s an interesting concept and I did like the twists of the mystery here, I’m not sure I care about or like Nora enough after reading this to really want to follow her adventures. I might pick up the second book if it happens to cross my radar, but it’s not something I’m going to put on my Must Read list. I’ll give this one four stars.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.
Suddenly, everything is up-ended. On impulse, Nora takes off with the truck and the Airstream, driving through the night and finally winding up in a remote campground in deepest Wyoming, parking up next door to sweet Miranda and her handsome husband Brad, the camp managers. The couple are kind to her, but things take a turn for the weird after Nora’s first night when Brad disappears, leaving behind only a massive bloodstain on the grass. Has he really been eaten by a bear? Nora planned to move on, but Miranda’s distraught, she can’t just leave her. And then suddenly, Nora’s a suspect…
This had some really fun twists and turns. Nora’s in a state of shock for pretty much the entire book, and her state of mind does lead her to do some things which someone operating entirely rationally might not do, but as I said, she’s in a state of shock and though she doesn’t realise it until later, she’s being deliberately kept that way, off balance and having to react to the blows that keep coming.
Nora’s set up as a sympathetic protagonist from the beginning when she finds Joe cheating on her, and to be honest, it was necessary, because there were definitely places where I struggled to like her. She came off as entitled and rich (and considering both she and Joe had good careers and no kids, how the hell did they end up at 50 with no assets but the car and trailer?) and there was a bit of backstory mentioned a couple times where in her previous job, she apparently helped four male students ‘spin’ their way out of a gang rape charge, which absolutely horrified me. It didn’t seem necessary and it REALLY needed cutting, because I was suddenly very much not rooting for her when I read that. I wondered if the ‘villain’ was going to turn out to be the victim or a family member looking for revenge, actually, but it seemed to be a red herring because it didn’t come up again.
This is the first in a series about Nora - presumably travelling around with her Airstream and stumbling into crimes - and while it’s an interesting concept and I did like the twists of the mystery here, I’m not sure I care about or like Nora enough after reading this to really want to follow her adventures. I might pick up the second book if it happens to cross my radar, but it’s not something I’m going to put on my Must Read list. I’ll give this one four stars.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.
February 7, 2021
“Back from the Dead
Because it appears I was supposed to be. Stabbed. Pushed over a cliff. And, in case none of that did the trick, smeared with bacon, presumably to draw in the bear that would finish the job.”
Do you ever get that feeling, watching old episodes of Murder She Wrote now, that there’s no way someone wouldn’t see that the one common thread linking hundreds of crimes together was Jessica Fletcher? She’s the angel of DEATH! Nora Best is like 50-something sex hungry Jessica, a cross between Jessica and Blanche from the Golden Girls if you will. She forces her husband to have sex 6 days a week in an attempt to make a buck off the experience by writing a book and then gets bent out of shape when the world of artificial intimacy she’s created blows up in her face.
So she bolts, attempting to leave her old life behind, only to be stabbed (!), pushed over a cliff (!!), and smeared with bacon (!!!).
What’s really disappointing is the first half of this book is really good and then it just takes a sharp turn to crazy town. Unneeded details are added to paint more than one character a certain way and thus lessen the impact of critical moments and Nora doesn’t turn out to be crazy even though that would have been the best possible and most plausible outcome for all involved.
Stay far, far, FAR away from this one.
Because it appears I was supposed to be. Stabbed. Pushed over a cliff. And, in case none of that did the trick, smeared with bacon, presumably to draw in the bear that would finish the job.”
Do you ever get that feeling, watching old episodes of Murder She Wrote now, that there’s no way someone wouldn’t see that the one common thread linking hundreds of crimes together was Jessica Fletcher? She’s the angel of DEATH! Nora Best is like 50-something sex hungry Jessica, a cross between Jessica and Blanche from the Golden Girls if you will. She forces her husband to have sex 6 days a week in an attempt to make a buck off the experience by writing a book and then gets bent out of shape when the world of artificial intimacy she’s created blows up in her face.
So she bolts, attempting to leave her old life behind, only to be stabbed (!), pushed over a cliff (!!), and smeared with bacon (!!!).
What’s really disappointing is the first half of this book is really good and then it just takes a sharp turn to crazy town. Unneeded details are added to paint more than one character a certain way and thus lessen the impact of critical moments and Nora doesn’t turn out to be crazy even though that would have been the best possible and most plausible outcome for all involved.
Stay far, far, FAR away from this one.
March 11, 2021
This is the good start of a new series that has a lot of potential.
I liked it and found it engrossing and entertaining. Like any book in a new series you get to know the character and their background. I liked Nora and will be happy to read again about her.
The mystery is solid and, even if it wasn't hard to guess the culprit, it kept my attention.
Look forward to reading the next installment, this one is recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
I liked it and found it engrossing and entertaining. Like any book in a new series you get to know the character and their background. I liked Nora and will be happy to read again about her.
The mystery is solid and, even if it wasn't hard to guess the culprit, it kept my attention.
Look forward to reading the next installment, this one is recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
Read
February 14, 2022Engaging
The events start hitting quickly from.the first few pages with a discovery of.betrayal and a hasty and surprising reaction. Then they continue with mystery and.mayhem.
The events start hitting quickly from.the first few pages with a discovery of.betrayal and a hasty and surprising reaction. Then they continue with mystery and.mayhem.
November 8, 2022
What a fun read and great heroine.
February 7, 2021
Started off okay, then I thought it might be a DNF because I really didn't care for the main character. I liked her marginally better by the end of the book, but things seemed a bit disjointed throughout. May read the next one, may not.
January 1, 2021
If a 50+ yr old heroine who, despite the relatable internal arguing with herself, takes decisive action when she finds her husband in flagrant with her best friend and then finds herself in a real pickle, then pulls on strengths she didn’t realize she had to survive, then you’ll like this book. Nora Best and her Airstream camper Electra are quite a pair. I enjoyed this book, although the ending wasn’t what I expected or what I’d have done. Four stars. I’ll read the next in the series.
November 1, 2021
Another fantastic book by Gwen Florio. This one introduces the reader to new characters and an interesting setting. The protagonist is tough, resilient, and likable. I highly recommend this book.
February 15, 2021
Best Laid Plans by Gwen Florio is the first book in A Nora Best Mystery series. Nora Best has just turned fifty and is about to make some big changes. Nora and her husband, Joe have quit their jobs and sold their home. They have purchased a truck and an Airstream. They are going to travel around the country with Nora writing her second book, a travel blog, and taking freelance writing assignments (which will pay for their adventures). During the farewell party, Nora enters the bathroom to find her husband and his best friend’s wife in a compromising position. Nora decides to begin her adventure early by taking off with the truck and Airstream. Nora soon finds herself arrested for murder and she needs to uncover who is setting her up. I was taken with the concept of this series. Our protagonist traveling around and solving mysteries. I liked that Nora is a woman my own age (a rarity in cozy mysteries). I was, though, put off with the significant amount of foul language, alcohol, and talk of intimate situations. The story is told from Nora’s point-of-view which turned me off because of her thoughts (and they say men have a one track mind). I can understand that Nora has had some shocks, but I wish she had acted logically. An example is when the attorney tells her that the police will soon have a warrant and will be searching her Airstream for further evidence. I would go through the trailer with a fine-tooth comb. Nora heads off to the lake to enjoy the view. I was hoping the whodunit would redeem the book, but I was disappointed. It can easily be solved early in the book thanks to one little detail. I thought the book contained many unneeded details along with repetition of information and the second half was a little off the rails (headed to crazy town). As you can tell, I was not the right audience for Best Laid Plans. Nora is an unlikeable protagonist who I would not let near my husband (if I had one). She begins ogling a man less than two days after leaving her husband and has thoughts of doing more than sharing a dinner with him. I also tired of hearing about the husband’s perfect tush. Best Laid Plans is an outrageous mystery tale with a missing man, a ravenous bear, a razor-sharp axe, an awesome Airstream, scrumptious pie, and a remarkable ranger.
January 22, 2021
I enjoyed the concept and characters of this novel despite solving the mystery really early on. I rarely solve the crimes but this one was abundantly transparent. I also love a twist or two and there were none to be found here. But as I said, I still enjoyed this and was entertained by the dilemmas the main character found herself in. I related to the 50ish age bracket and was captivated by the idea of life in a luxury caravan. This was a light read with a dose of drama thrown in. I will be buying this for our library and I'm sure there will be an audience for this style of comedy adventure. I like the cover but I feel like it would suit a different style of story, something more serious and without the humour and hijinks evident in this series starter.
I received this arc from netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
I received this arc from netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
January 26, 2021
Nora and Joe had plans for the next part of their lives- traveling the US with an airstream. Unfortunately, Nora finds Joe cheating on her at their bon voyage party so she just takes off without him. A stop at a campground in Wyoming seems great due to the hosts Miranda and Brad until it's not. Brad goes missing (has he been dragged off by a bear?), Nora is accused (she's a stranger) and then someone seems to target her. Joe turns up to help, the trailer is stolen, and more, Whew. There's a lot in this intro to a new series but it establishes Nora as an intrepid woman who keeps going . You, like me, might figure out what's going on before the big reveal but that's ok. There's local color, tidbits about the trailer, and nice writing. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm looking forwar to the next one.
August 12, 2022
This book was so horrible that I couldn't even bear to finish it. There is nothing so annoying as a protagonist so self-centered that she wallows in her own helplessness crying out for pity that there is no ink left to spare in finding out what actually happened to the poor victim. If any of the other characters had a grain of sense at all, we wouldn't know it for all the misery the helpless dingbat imagines they are heaping on her. This should not be billed as a mystery story since it is merely a rant on life"s difficulties by a woman capable of dealing with even the smallest problem only with drama and whine. A third of the way through and I doubt I would figure out the fate of the missing (presumeably murdered) man even by the last page. Goodbye and good riddance Nora not-so-Best!
September 2, 2024
Best Laid Plans has all the makings of a lifetime movie. Cheating spouse, over the top mystery, incompetent police, good looking out doorsy local man, city woman in need of help. It didn’t take long to figure out, so I spent a majority of the book internally yelling at the main character as she kept trusting the wrong people & putting herself in worse situations. With that said, I do occasionally enjoy a lifetime movie, this Best laid Plans was quick, easy to read and enjoyable. Sign me up for the rest of the series!
September 18, 2024
Probably 3.75 about Nora in the forest. There is a lot of squirrely storyline about a murder where a body has not be found. They inexplicably switch back and forth between blaming a bear that has never been seen and Nora who just arrived in the campground after ditching her husband at a party where she found him with her best friend - she actually gets arrested and they start talking about trial - for a murder where they are not actually sure he's dead. Loose story line but fun enough that I read another one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2025
If you're looking for some fun, easy reading by a gifted writer, I definitely recommend this one. If you prefer suspenseful thrillers or complex plotlines, you may want to look elsewhere.
-Ian Muehlenhaus
Read the full review at: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/review...
-Ian Muehlenhaus
Read the full review at: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/review...
November 13, 2022
Mystery meets romance meets woman finds herself. The plot is a bit on the wild side, just like the setting, but it is nice to have a 50-year-old woman as the protagonist even though she is quite the mess.
September 4, 2023
If this is the first mystery you've chosen to read, enjoy! But if you have read others or watched a few episodes of Castle, you will figure this out in about 20 pages. Maybe 15. The best part was the description of the pie.
June 8, 2024
Ok, I read the whole book, but I won't continue with the series. A major character I couldn't relate with, a story that included lots of irrelevant components, and an ending that made me ask myself "what the heck?". Too many other books. I only finished to make sure my assumption was correct.
February 22, 2021
I loved that it took place in the woods. She’s good at describing the beautiful outdoors. I also loved the ending.
March 16, 2021
This book started out promising but quickly became unbelievable and uninteresting. Character development lacking and cliched. I kind of skipped through the last 1/3 of this book.
March 21, 2021
Fatphobic in the opening though Nora unlearns some of it by the end.
March 28, 2021
Boring book. Did not finish as did not care. Didn't like the writing style or the main character.
April 22, 2021
Okay. Editing would have helped, at least by making it shorter.
August 23, 2021
A fun entertaining listen read by Vivienne Let any who did an excellent job. I listened on Axios 360 and downloaded from my library. Be careful who you befriend!
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