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Booked for Travel Mystery #2
Murder Pans Out
Travel agency owner and guide Lynne Montgemery, while leading a group of San Diego schoolteachers through California's Gold Rush Country, discovers that someone is trying to sabotage her tour when mysterious accidents begin happening. Original.
- GenresMysteryCozy MysteryCozy
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 6, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 23, 2019
Women should be lifting each other up by 2003. “Murder Pans Out” is about Lynne Montgomery’s travel agency. The first mystery was weak but I liked the idea enough to try this sequel. I loved the California gold rush history. This vacation was for fellow teachers.
Some stories add an irritating person for the purpose of bonding later. Emily did not do it successfully or meaningfully. I favoured Susi, whose sins were not being athletic and being ill. The personalities were such clichés, they were inaccurate. Athletic, outdoorsy personages were deemed ideal humans. Susi was outcast for disliking sports and advising the group that she needed to order medication she had forgotten. Not one thing was wrong with that. One of the worshipped athletes had such severe allergies to peanuts and bee stings, SHE carried emergency kits and everyone fawned over HER ordeal.
Another athlete was said to be vegetarian but owned a rifle and was arrested, too. SHE was fretted over. For professional tour guides, Susi was not difficult or irritating but Lynne did not stop at one quip. She made a disparaging remark every time Susi was mentioned! I lost respect for Emily Toll. Lynne forgave a thief and vandal. Why not a colleague who suffered an appendicitis attack and who needed a supportive shoulder regarding infidelity?
No mystery existed: a definition interpreted as poorly as personality types. It is a puzzle or question that a protagonist resolves. A crime is unnecessary. However, Emily thought dumping a death and theft into a story about a tour group, would equate a mystery. We knew all about the thief because he was given a narrative! Every stage was accidental, not solved. I would have nonetheless tried the rest of this series, which I already own, if not for unforgiveable meanness.
Some stories add an irritating person for the purpose of bonding later. Emily did not do it successfully or meaningfully. I favoured Susi, whose sins were not being athletic and being ill. The personalities were such clichés, they were inaccurate. Athletic, outdoorsy personages were deemed ideal humans. Susi was outcast for disliking sports and advising the group that she needed to order medication she had forgotten. Not one thing was wrong with that. One of the worshipped athletes had such severe allergies to peanuts and bee stings, SHE carried emergency kits and everyone fawned over HER ordeal.
Another athlete was said to be vegetarian but owned a rifle and was arrested, too. SHE was fretted over. For professional tour guides, Susi was not difficult or irritating but Lynne did not stop at one quip. She made a disparaging remark every time Susi was mentioned! I lost respect for Emily Toll. Lynne forgave a thief and vandal. Why not a colleague who suffered an appendicitis attack and who needed a supportive shoulder regarding infidelity?
No mystery existed: a definition interpreted as poorly as personality types. It is a puzzle or question that a protagonist resolves. A crime is unnecessary. However, Emily thought dumping a death and theft into a story about a tour group, would equate a mystery. We knew all about the thief because he was given a narrative! Every stage was accidental, not solved. I would have nonetheless tried the rest of this series, which I already own, if not for unforgiveable meanness.
November 13, 2016
Loved this one! A group of teachers -- various grade levels, some good friends, some related, some just co-workers -- embark on a tour of gold rush country in California. It's a fun, happy group that starts out, but their tour is plagued with different calamities ranging from car trouble to murder! The ladies persevere, but trouble keeps managing to find them right through to the very end. Very well researched and informative, with lots of historical info throughout.
February 18, 2017
The second book in the series.
This time travel agent owner Lynne is on a different trip. One with a group of school teachers including some good friends, some friends and some overhearing desperate people!
Another adventure for this lady and her travel companions as there seem to be multiple enemies on their trail.
A fun mystery with lots of nice historical information without overshare. Some great twists and fun and exciting new plots throughout!
Also an interesting and nice crossword!
This time travel agent owner Lynne is on a different trip. One with a group of school teachers including some good friends, some friends and some overhearing desperate people!
Another adventure for this lady and her travel companions as there seem to be multiple enemies on their trail.
A fun mystery with lots of nice historical information without overshare. Some great twists and fun and exciting new plots throughout!
Also an interesting and nice crossword!
August 14, 2012
Another fundamental cozy mystery. Emily Toll does well in describing each of the characters as the book progresses. Her description of the tourist towns was very detailed. I felt like I was there seeing each of the scenes and getting to know each of the characters.
December 30, 2024
This mystery is a big contrast to the other one I just read. That was an early Nordic Noir this is a cozy of a group of elementary teachers on a trip through the California Gold Rush Country and filled with fun events that sounds like things I would very much enjoy doing. Yes, there is a murder and some conflicts between some of the characters but overall a fun story and a decent mystery. The contrast is amazing. This series I wouldn't mind continuing while the other, depressing as all heck, I will not be continuing with. Don't get me wrong, deep psychological and sociological aspects of mysteries have their place, I'm just definitely not in the mood for them now (and maybe not ever).
May 13, 2020
I kinda enjoyed it, at least enough to finish it. The vibe between the characters was awkward. The story had way too many plotlines going on.
March 2, 2022
The 2nd in the series. Liked the historical tidbits that were thrown in, but she doesn’t always solve all the issues.
October 1, 2025
Loved this murder mystery from Emily Toll. She really told us a lot about the towns around the gold rush. And her group of fellow travellers kept the story interesting and personal. Good cozy read!
September 7, 2016
Murder Pans Out by Emily Toll is the second book of the Booked for Travel mystery series set in late 1990s California. Widowed Lynne Montgomery owns and operates a travel agency in the fictitious town of Floritas in San Diego County, California.
For her long-time friend Betsy Danforth and Betsy’s fellow schoolteachers at Pettigrew Elementary school, Lynne organized an informal ‘Highway 49 Revisited’ tour of California Gold Rush country. It’s the first week after school gets out for the summer. For Lynne, it’s perfect: “…a week in a historic natural location with a group of bright and entertaining women, some of whom had been her friends for decades. A grown-up summer camp, where you got to plan your own activities and hang out with your own friends and make your own rules.”
Lynne and Betsy met as children when their fathers were stationed on Guam. They grew up and went separate ways, but happily met again when Betsy came to teach at Pettigrew when Lynne’s children were enrolled. Betsy did much of the advance prep for the Gold Rush trip, including sewing polymer-filled neckbands to cool everyone, and ‘ARGONAUTS’ T-shirts.
“The original Argonauts were male fortune hunters, wealthy enough to afford passage on ships sailing from the East Coast around Cape Horn, in a frantic race to reach inland rivers of California where they expected to pluck nuggets by the handful.”
Along Highway 99 on the way to gold country, the Booked for Travel van needs repairs. While Lynne and Betsy wait, they browse Ledbetter Antiques shop. Betsy buys a Victorian fringed lamp like one her grandmother had. The lamp is ugly, very heavy and needs rewiring, but Betsy loves it.
Judith Limone and her daughter Lisa take the more efficient I-5 route to Hwy 49. Judith is the principal of Pettigrew Elementary, and Lisa teaches there, a source of great joy to Judith. They are traveling with Mandy Mosher, one of Judith’s former pupils and now a Pettigrew teacher.
Nikki Mason drives up with fellow schoolteachers Marianne and Susi in her SUV. Susi is a fussy ‘high-maintenance’ woman. She has created a Gold Rush themed crossword puzzle for the group. Marianne is divorced from Mark, fighting over child custody. She suspects he wants joint custody only to reduce childcare payments, not to spend time with his children.
Nikki and Marianne love the outdoors, and set up a tent to camp, while the rest of the group settles indoors at Murmuring Pines Cabins outside Nevada City. Murmuring Pines is group HQ for the first several days of the tour. Their first night is relaxing and peaceful as they gather around a campfire and toast marshmallows to make s’mores.
“The group grew silent again and Lynne was conscious of the night sounds, of an owl hooting somewhere off down the ridge, of the nearby creek tumbling toward its own little waterfall, of the wind rustling gently through the trees. The murmuring pines, now that she thought about it.”
This quote sums up exactly what I like about Emily Toll’s novels: “Lynne liked the feel of this group, the sense of camaraderie and good nature and gentle irreverence.”
That first evening campfire at Murmuring Pines was the last truly peaceful moment. Besides hot weather in dry and dusty country, tour members experience food poisoning, the murder of their campground host, malicious and destructive cabin and automobile break-ins and thefts, and a surprise arrest. The teachers were “accustomed to encountering unexpected annoyances and swiftly resolving them”, so they went on exploring and enjoying historic locations, unaware they were still in danger. Alternating chapters describe a villain’s search for smuggled goods, in fear of ruthless gangsters.
The Gold Rush tour culminates with a Characters Dinner in the restored 1856 City Hotel in Columbia. Each woman dresses as a Gold Rush character in a period-authentic costume. Although Lynne captures a villain at City Hotel, the group’s misadventures are not quite over. Next day they foil a premeditated murder attempt at Moaning Caverns, and finally all mysteries are solved.
Enjoy vicariously traveling along the back roads of Gold Rush country: “The forest along this stretch of Highway 49 was dense and rich, with towering pines and sequoias hugging both sides of the roadway. The trees formed a distant V with the two-lane blacktop at its base, opening at the top to vivid blue sky. They were more than half a mile above sea level here, engulfed by the Tahoe National Forest, and all but alone on the highway.”
Susi’s Gold Rush crossword puzzle and its solution are included. The next book in the Booked for Travel mystery series is Fall into Death.
For her long-time friend Betsy Danforth and Betsy’s fellow schoolteachers at Pettigrew Elementary school, Lynne organized an informal ‘Highway 49 Revisited’ tour of California Gold Rush country. It’s the first week after school gets out for the summer. For Lynne, it’s perfect: “…a week in a historic natural location with a group of bright and entertaining women, some of whom had been her friends for decades. A grown-up summer camp, where you got to plan your own activities and hang out with your own friends and make your own rules.”
Lynne and Betsy met as children when their fathers were stationed on Guam. They grew up and went separate ways, but happily met again when Betsy came to teach at Pettigrew when Lynne’s children were enrolled. Betsy did much of the advance prep for the Gold Rush trip, including sewing polymer-filled neckbands to cool everyone, and ‘ARGONAUTS’ T-shirts.
“The original Argonauts were male fortune hunters, wealthy enough to afford passage on ships sailing from the East Coast around Cape Horn, in a frantic race to reach inland rivers of California where they expected to pluck nuggets by the handful.”
Along Highway 99 on the way to gold country, the Booked for Travel van needs repairs. While Lynne and Betsy wait, they browse Ledbetter Antiques shop. Betsy buys a Victorian fringed lamp like one her grandmother had. The lamp is ugly, very heavy and needs rewiring, but Betsy loves it.
Judith Limone and her daughter Lisa take the more efficient I-5 route to Hwy 49. Judith is the principal of Pettigrew Elementary, and Lisa teaches there, a source of great joy to Judith. They are traveling with Mandy Mosher, one of Judith’s former pupils and now a Pettigrew teacher.
Nikki Mason drives up with fellow schoolteachers Marianne and Susi in her SUV. Susi is a fussy ‘high-maintenance’ woman. She has created a Gold Rush themed crossword puzzle for the group. Marianne is divorced from Mark, fighting over child custody. She suspects he wants joint custody only to reduce childcare payments, not to spend time with his children.
Nikki and Marianne love the outdoors, and set up a tent to camp, while the rest of the group settles indoors at Murmuring Pines Cabins outside Nevada City. Murmuring Pines is group HQ for the first several days of the tour. Their first night is relaxing and peaceful as they gather around a campfire and toast marshmallows to make s’mores.
“The group grew silent again and Lynne was conscious of the night sounds, of an owl hooting somewhere off down the ridge, of the nearby creek tumbling toward its own little waterfall, of the wind rustling gently through the trees. The murmuring pines, now that she thought about it.”
This quote sums up exactly what I like about Emily Toll’s novels: “Lynne liked the feel of this group, the sense of camaraderie and good nature and gentle irreverence.”
That first evening campfire at Murmuring Pines was the last truly peaceful moment. Besides hot weather in dry and dusty country, tour members experience food poisoning, the murder of their campground host, malicious and destructive cabin and automobile break-ins and thefts, and a surprise arrest. The teachers were “accustomed to encountering unexpected annoyances and swiftly resolving them”, so they went on exploring and enjoying historic locations, unaware they were still in danger. Alternating chapters describe a villain’s search for smuggled goods, in fear of ruthless gangsters.
The Gold Rush tour culminates with a Characters Dinner in the restored 1856 City Hotel in Columbia. Each woman dresses as a Gold Rush character in a period-authentic costume. Although Lynne captures a villain at City Hotel, the group’s misadventures are not quite over. Next day they foil a premeditated murder attempt at Moaning Caverns, and finally all mysteries are solved.
Enjoy vicariously traveling along the back roads of Gold Rush country: “The forest along this stretch of Highway 49 was dense and rich, with towering pines and sequoias hugging both sides of the roadway. The trees formed a distant V with the two-lane blacktop at its base, opening at the top to vivid blue sky. They were more than half a mile above sea level here, engulfed by the Tahoe National Forest, and all but alone on the highway.”
Susi’s Gold Rush crossword puzzle and its solution are included. The next book in the Booked for Travel mystery series is Fall into Death.
February 26, 2016
Not bad, although the mystery felt rather drawn out. However, the Gold Rush history made me want to read a bit more about the period.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews