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Maeve Conlon #3
Lie in Plain Sight
It's a busy day at the bakery Maeve Conlon owns when she receives a phone call from the high school saying Maeve's employee's daughter, Taylor Dvorak, is ill. Taylor's mom is out on a delivery and Taylor has her own car, so harried Maeve gives the school nurse permission to send Taylor home on her own. But Taylor never makes it: Somewhere between the school and her house, she just vanishes.
Not only does Maeve feel responsible, but she can't shake the feeling that there's more to Taylor's disappearance than meets the eye. So Maeve decides to take matters into her own capable hands. She finds that Farringville has a lot more to hide than most small towns, from the secretive high school girls' soccer coach to Taylor's estranged father and her troubled mother, and she gets to work shining a light on all these mysteries.
Balancing this dark undertaking and her relationship with a local policeman, Maeve will have to walk the fine line between justice and revenge carefully if she hopes to prevail in the next suspenseful novel from Maggie Barbieri.
Not only does Maeve feel responsible, but she can't shake the feeling that there's more to Taylor's disappearance than meets the eye. So Maeve decides to take matters into her own capable hands. She finds that Farringville has a lot more to hide than most small towns, from the secretive high school girls' soccer coach to Taylor's estranged father and her troubled mother, and she gets to work shining a light on all these mysteries.
Balancing this dark undertaking and her relationship with a local policeman, Maeve will have to walk the fine line between justice and revenge carefully if she hopes to prevail in the next suspenseful novel from Maggie Barbieri.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published March 15, 2016
26 people are currently reading
600 people want to read
About the author
Maggie Barbieri
15 books190 followersMaggie Barbieri is the author of the Murder 101 series, which is comprised of Murder 101 (2006); Extracurricular Activities (2007), Quick Study (2008), Final Exam (2009) and Third Degree (due November 2010.) She lives in the New York metro area/Hudson Valley with her husband, and two children. By day she's a writer and editor of college textbooks. She is currently at work on the sixth book in the series, still untitled.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
March 16, 2016
ARC provided via Netgalley.
You can find my reviews at Carlene Inspired.
Maeve Conlon agrees to let her employee's teen daughter walk home from school when her mom is out on delivery, but when she's not home hours later things turn sour. She's just vanished and there's no solid leads. Maeve feels responsible, she feels guilt, and she knows there's more to Taylor's disappearance than meets the eye. Maeve takes things into her own hands and finds that the small town of Farringville has more secrets than one would ever expect.
What a perplexing mystery! I've had Lie in Plain Sight in my Kindle for a little while and when I hit a reading slump this week I picked it up because I knew it was set to be released soon. Color me surprised when I couldn't put it down. Not only is the story-line complex, but the characters were so secretive that I couldn't stop turning the pages in hopes of getting farther beneath the surface. The mystery was not one I could have easily guessed, while there were times I thought Maeve was on the wrong track, nothing could have prepared me for the twists Maggie Barbieri inserted into this book. The characters were all very realistic, like anyone you'd meet in your local coffee shop, but with masks hiding the reality. As I read I found myself really seeing and feeling what Maeve saw and felt; she's a character that's too impulsive, but has the best of intentions. Her past is definitely dark and I actually liked that her past haunted her so much that it drove her to fight for justice and revenge. I enjoyed that Maggie Barbieri really showed how Maeve and her family fell apart as Maeve got obsessed, it felt realistic and I had a lot of compassion for her. And I seriously can't get over how many secrets were uncovered in this book, they just never stopped, and they affected everyone, it was a big spider web of lies.
I didn't have any idea that this was the third book in a series about Maeve Conlon, amateur sleuth, but I certainly want to read all of them. While it didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the book, I do think the previous novels would be better to read before picking up Lie in Plain Sight. This was a great suspense mystery and I would absolutely recommend it.
You can find my reviews at Carlene Inspired.
Maeve Conlon agrees to let her employee's teen daughter walk home from school when her mom is out on delivery, but when she's not home hours later things turn sour. She's just vanished and there's no solid leads. Maeve feels responsible, she feels guilt, and she knows there's more to Taylor's disappearance than meets the eye. Maeve takes things into her own hands and finds that the small town of Farringville has more secrets than one would ever expect.
What a perplexing mystery! I've had Lie in Plain Sight in my Kindle for a little while and when I hit a reading slump this week I picked it up because I knew it was set to be released soon. Color me surprised when I couldn't put it down. Not only is the story-line complex, but the characters were so secretive that I couldn't stop turning the pages in hopes of getting farther beneath the surface. The mystery was not one I could have easily guessed, while there were times I thought Maeve was on the wrong track, nothing could have prepared me for the twists Maggie Barbieri inserted into this book. The characters were all very realistic, like anyone you'd meet in your local coffee shop, but with masks hiding the reality. As I read I found myself really seeing and feeling what Maeve saw and felt; she's a character that's too impulsive, but has the best of intentions. Her past is definitely dark and I actually liked that her past haunted her so much that it drove her to fight for justice and revenge. I enjoyed that Maggie Barbieri really showed how Maeve and her family fell apart as Maeve got obsessed, it felt realistic and I had a lot of compassion for her. And I seriously can't get over how many secrets were uncovered in this book, they just never stopped, and they affected everyone, it was a big spider web of lies.
I didn't have any idea that this was the third book in a series about Maeve Conlon, amateur sleuth, but I certainly want to read all of them. While it didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the book, I do think the previous novels would be better to read before picking up Lie in Plain Sight. This was a great suspense mystery and I would absolutely recommend it.
May 4, 2016
Please check out all of my reviews at http://ultraviolentlit.blogspot.ca!
Lie in Plain Sight is the third in a series of books about bakery owner Maeve Conlon, who finds herself at the centre of every crime that takes place in her small town. She acts as an amateur sleuth in these cases, but they also all involve her personally – it seems like too many dramatic incidents to happen to one woman. It would probably be better to read these books in order, otherwise there are some parts of Maeve’s back story that are missing; however, it can be read on its own as a surface-level crime novel.
When Maeve needs help at her bakery, she hires the mother of another student at her daughter’s school. The new employee is down on her luck and desperately needs work, but there is something suspicious and really unlikeable about her as well. Soon after she starts work, the employee’s daughter Taylor gets sick at school. The school calls the bakery, and Maeve gives the girl permission to go home – but she never arrives. Now the mother and much of the community blames Maeve for the girl’s disappearance, even though Taylor is eighteen and weeks away from graduation – more than capable of making her way home in the middle of the day.
Conveniently, Maeve is dating a local cop, so she uses what little information she hears from him about Taylor’s disappearance to launch her own investigation. Maeve’s crime-fighting initiative seems to come out of nowhere, although apparently it happened before in her previous novels. During her search, many local characters become suspects, but none are all that believable. Really, that was my problem with the entire novel – none of it seemed very likely, and the whole scenario was too far from reality.
Maeve is a completely unlikeable character, which is fine – but I just couldn’t even identify with or understand her motivations, which made it hard to become immersed in the story. There is no explanation of why she thinks she can act as an amateur detective, and no plausible reason for why she gets away with her vigilantism, especially with her police officer boyfriend hanging around – apparently, he isn’t very observant. The story started out with an appealing and provocative mystery, but it didn’t really follow through. Perhaps it would help to read the first two books in order to identify with Maeve, but this novel just didn’t work for me.
I received this novel from Minotaur Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Lie in Plain Sight is the third in a series of books about bakery owner Maeve Conlon, who finds herself at the centre of every crime that takes place in her small town. She acts as an amateur sleuth in these cases, but they also all involve her personally – it seems like too many dramatic incidents to happen to one woman. It would probably be better to read these books in order, otherwise there are some parts of Maeve’s back story that are missing; however, it can be read on its own as a surface-level crime novel.
When Maeve needs help at her bakery, she hires the mother of another student at her daughter’s school. The new employee is down on her luck and desperately needs work, but there is something suspicious and really unlikeable about her as well. Soon after she starts work, the employee’s daughter Taylor gets sick at school. The school calls the bakery, and Maeve gives the girl permission to go home – but she never arrives. Now the mother and much of the community blames Maeve for the girl’s disappearance, even though Taylor is eighteen and weeks away from graduation – more than capable of making her way home in the middle of the day.
Conveniently, Maeve is dating a local cop, so she uses what little information she hears from him about Taylor’s disappearance to launch her own investigation. Maeve’s crime-fighting initiative seems to come out of nowhere, although apparently it happened before in her previous novels. During her search, many local characters become suspects, but none are all that believable. Really, that was my problem with the entire novel – none of it seemed very likely, and the whole scenario was too far from reality.
Maeve is a completely unlikeable character, which is fine – but I just couldn’t even identify with or understand her motivations, which made it hard to become immersed in the story. There is no explanation of why she thinks she can act as an amateur detective, and no plausible reason for why she gets away with her vigilantism, especially with her police officer boyfriend hanging around – apparently, he isn’t very observant. The story started out with an appealing and provocative mystery, but it didn’t really follow through. Perhaps it would help to read the first two books in order to identify with Maeve, but this novel just didn’t work for me.
I received this novel from Minotaur Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
July 13, 2016
“Lie in Plain Sight” By Maggie Barbieri
This series has been one of the more interesting I’ve discovered in a long while, mainly because the first book, where we are introduced to Maeve, a baker, turned amateur detective, is pretty much a standard mystery. I sincerely liked Maeve, but was thrown off balance by her sudden descent into the dark side in book two.
As “Lie in Plain Sight” opens, we find Maeve still dealing with the events that took place in the previous installment, and we catch her in the act of making a disappointing mistake.
However, when a local teen goes missing, Maeve inserts herself into the investigation, while trying to run her busy bakery, jostle her complicated love life, and deal with her hostile teenage daughter, Heather.
Maeve’s focus on the missing persons case, while a little obsessive, has given her a renewed sense of purpose, has sharpened her focus in regards to Heather, and her relationships with her ex-husband and boyfriend.
Small town secrets and lies always make for an interesting read, and with Maeve involved, it’s even more delicious, with just a pinch of dark humor on the side.
The author has put a darker spin on the amateur detective trope, and it has grown on me, with this installment being the strongest in the series. For Maeve, justice is justice, and her brand of it is controversial, but it does get the job done. However, I was thankful Maeve's disturbing thoughts tapered off, plus, she seems to have found a balance in her life, at long last.
These books should be read in order to fully enjoy all the nuances and I think those who have been following along will agree, that if this is indeed the end of the series, it ended on a very high note. 4 stars.
Reviewed by Julie Whiteley for Suspense Magazine
This series has been one of the more interesting I’ve discovered in a long while, mainly because the first book, where we are introduced to Maeve, a baker, turned amateur detective, is pretty much a standard mystery. I sincerely liked Maeve, but was thrown off balance by her sudden descent into the dark side in book two.
As “Lie in Plain Sight” opens, we find Maeve still dealing with the events that took place in the previous installment, and we catch her in the act of making a disappointing mistake.
However, when a local teen goes missing, Maeve inserts herself into the investigation, while trying to run her busy bakery, jostle her complicated love life, and deal with her hostile teenage daughter, Heather.
Maeve’s focus on the missing persons case, while a little obsessive, has given her a renewed sense of purpose, has sharpened her focus in regards to Heather, and her relationships with her ex-husband and boyfriend.
Small town secrets and lies always make for an interesting read, and with Maeve involved, it’s even more delicious, with just a pinch of dark humor on the side.
The author has put a darker spin on the amateur detective trope, and it has grown on me, with this installment being the strongest in the series. For Maeve, justice is justice, and her brand of it is controversial, but it does get the job done. However, I was thankful Maeve's disturbing thoughts tapered off, plus, she seems to have found a balance in her life, at long last.
These books should be read in order to fully enjoy all the nuances and I think those who have been following along will agree, that if this is indeed the end of the series, it ended on a very high note. 4 stars.
Reviewed by Julie Whiteley for Suspense Magazine
April 27, 2016
This is book three in a series that I haven't read, so maybe my opinion of this book was slightly impacted by this fact. However, I just didn't enjoy this book. And to me, the end was really a mess, with the last few chapters wrapping things up way too quickly and haphazardly.
May 22, 2019
One of the problems with this book is that although it is part of a series you are given very little context or explanation for the odd behaviour and strange choices made by the protagonist Maeve Conlon, a baker and amateur sleuth, living in a small town peopled by mainly weak or extremely unlikeable characters. Although Maeve is a baker she seems to have no love for cooking and is instead obsessed with finding a missing girl ..why we dont know. Hints are given as to Maeve's unhappy past and perhaps Dexter like leanings, but that's all we get, no cogent explanations. It turn out Maeve may or may not have committed murder at one point in her life and has a mysterious relationship with a New York cop. She also has an immature ex-husband, an intellectually challenged half-sister who she loves and the most hateful and obnoxious daughter since the girl in Mildred Pierce. She also loves her local cop boyfriend but has no respect for his ability. And so on. It just becomes one big garbled mess that started out as promising but ended up muddled and unsatisfying. The ending does tie a few things up but for the most part :Bleah.
March 14, 2016
4.5 stars.
Lie in Plain Sight, the third installment in Maggie Barbieri's series featuring baker (and amateur sleuth) Maeve Conlon, is another perplexing and complex mystery.
When Taylor, the daughter of her newly hired employee Trish Dvorak, goes missing, Maeve cannot help but feel responsible. Although Maeve's boyfriend, Detective Chris Larsson, is on the case, she knows both Chris and the small town police department are out of their depth so she begins investigating the disappearance on her own. When she discovers another teenage girl from a neighboring town vanished without a trace under eerily similar circumstances the previous year, Maeve is convinced there is a connection between the two cases.
Maeve is still a little impulsive and it does not take long for her to become obsessed with trying to find Taylor. She often acts without thinking and while most of the time this is not a problem, she occasionally ends up some rather dangerous situations. Determined, intelligent and headstrong, Maeve does not hesitate to act on her suspicions which often results in some rather unpleasant confrontations with the town's residents. Despite her slightly off center moral compass, Maeve has the best of intentions when she begins her investigation into Taylor's disappearance and it is impossible to find fault with her reaction when she uncovers the truth.
Maeve's personal life remains a bit of a mess and her relationships with daughter Heather, ex-husband Cal and boyfriend Chris continue to be complicated. She and Heather are often at odds and their moments of closeness are fleeting since it does not take much for their interactions to rapidly deteriorate. Ex-husband Cal's current marriage unexpectedly hits a rough patch and Maeve's somewhat turbulent relationship with him becomes even more awkward and tense. Her romance with Chris begins to falter under the weight of her dark secrets and her inability to completely honest with him about certain aspects of her life. Throw in Maeve's lack of confidence in Chris as a detective and their relationship becomes even more rocky.
Fast-paced with an intriguing storyline, Lie in Plain Sight is a riveting mystery that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy. With a long list of suspects and plenty of small town secrets, Maggie Barbieri brilliantly obscures the truth about Taylor's disappearance until the novel's dramatic conclusion. It is another wonderful (and quite possibly, last :( ) installment in the Maeve Conlon series that I absolutely loved and highly recommend.
Lie in Plain Sight, the third installment in Maggie Barbieri's series featuring baker (and amateur sleuth) Maeve Conlon, is another perplexing and complex mystery.
When Taylor, the daughter of her newly hired employee Trish Dvorak, goes missing, Maeve cannot help but feel responsible. Although Maeve's boyfriend, Detective Chris Larsson, is on the case, she knows both Chris and the small town police department are out of their depth so she begins investigating the disappearance on her own. When she discovers another teenage girl from a neighboring town vanished without a trace under eerily similar circumstances the previous year, Maeve is convinced there is a connection between the two cases.
Maeve is still a little impulsive and it does not take long for her to become obsessed with trying to find Taylor. She often acts without thinking and while most of the time this is not a problem, she occasionally ends up some rather dangerous situations. Determined, intelligent and headstrong, Maeve does not hesitate to act on her suspicions which often results in some rather unpleasant confrontations with the town's residents. Despite her slightly off center moral compass, Maeve has the best of intentions when she begins her investigation into Taylor's disappearance and it is impossible to find fault with her reaction when she uncovers the truth.
Maeve's personal life remains a bit of a mess and her relationships with daughter Heather, ex-husband Cal and boyfriend Chris continue to be complicated. She and Heather are often at odds and their moments of closeness are fleeting since it does not take much for their interactions to rapidly deteriorate. Ex-husband Cal's current marriage unexpectedly hits a rough patch and Maeve's somewhat turbulent relationship with him becomes even more awkward and tense. Her romance with Chris begins to falter under the weight of her dark secrets and her inability to completely honest with him about certain aspects of her life. Throw in Maeve's lack of confidence in Chris as a detective and their relationship becomes even more rocky.
Fast-paced with an intriguing storyline, Lie in Plain Sight is a riveting mystery that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy. With a long list of suspects and plenty of small town secrets, Maggie Barbieri brilliantly obscures the truth about Taylor's disappearance until the novel's dramatic conclusion. It is another wonderful (and quite possibly, last :( ) installment in the Maeve Conlon series that I absolutely loved and highly recommend.
July 15, 2017
In some ways I enjoyed this novel more that the first in the series, I feel like the character was a lot tighter or perhaps I'm becoming more familiar with how she operates. Some brilliant plot twists, some I saw coming some I absolutely did not. I do feel like the author spent a little less time writing/editing this one, it feels a bit more hurried than the first one. Overall a very good read
March 26, 2016
I am a fan of this series and will continue to follow it. However, this was my least favorite. Less of a storyline and more of a way to move the characters along in their timeline.
April 13, 2016
Just awful!
December 29, 2021
I did enjoy this book, but not as much as #1 and #2 in the series. I really like the main character, Maeve, but I thought that she was way too down and was taking far too much crap from her youngest daughter Heather! A convent in Spain with high walls and no hope of escape would have been the place to park that brat!! LOL!
There was a quote in the book that I absolutely loved however: "Heather took one look at him and made a beeline for the basement, professing to have laundry to do. There was only one problem with that excuse: Heather had never done her own laundry, claiming that the new washing machine Maeve had bought the year before was too "complicated" to use. Maeve had to admit that her daughter had a point; it had taken her no fewer than five loads of laundry to figure out exactly how to start the machine on the first try, the front of it blinking furiously as Maeve punched every button on the keypad. She had finally gotten the hang of it, but not without a lot of cursing and swearing at whoever thought that a washing machine needed a computer." Amen Sister!!! I bought a washing machine in January of this year with a computer in it and while I don't swear at it as much anymore I still don't understand why people love the damn things!!
I was hoping that Maggie would continue this series, but as this the third one was published in 2016 and we are heading into 2022 in a few days, I guess that that will not be happening. I cannot even find any new information about Maggie Barbieri no matter how hard I search. Thank you Maggie for being the 50th and final book in my Goodreads yearly challenge!!!! Happy New Year 2022!!!!
There was a quote in the book that I absolutely loved however: "Heather took one look at him and made a beeline for the basement, professing to have laundry to do. There was only one problem with that excuse: Heather had never done her own laundry, claiming that the new washing machine Maeve had bought the year before was too "complicated" to use. Maeve had to admit that her daughter had a point; it had taken her no fewer than five loads of laundry to figure out exactly how to start the machine on the first try, the front of it blinking furiously as Maeve punched every button on the keypad. She had finally gotten the hang of it, but not without a lot of cursing and swearing at whoever thought that a washing machine needed a computer." Amen Sister!!! I bought a washing machine in January of this year with a computer in it and while I don't swear at it as much anymore I still don't understand why people love the damn things!!
I was hoping that Maggie would continue this series, but as this the third one was published in 2016 and we are heading into 2022 in a few days, I guess that that will not be happening. I cannot even find any new information about Maggie Barbieri no matter how hard I search. Thank you Maggie for being the 50th and final book in my Goodreads yearly challenge!!!! Happy New Year 2022!!!!
June 1, 2022
This is a good book with many twists and turns. The issue I found is that I did not know this was part of a series until I had already started reading it. It was hard to understand many components of the book without having read the two prior books.
The book follows the life of Maeve Conlon in a small town. A young girl goes missing, and since Maeve was the one who gave the school nurse permission to let her walk home from school alone, she starts playing detective to solve the case. She gets in a lot of trouble along the way.
I found the beginning of the book very interested, but I found the end wrapped up too quickly and didn't all make a lot of sense to me. There were almost too many coincidences of bad luck for Maeve.
The book follows the life of Maeve Conlon in a small town. A young girl goes missing, and since Maeve was the one who gave the school nurse permission to let her walk home from school alone, she starts playing detective to solve the case. She gets in a lot of trouble along the way.
I found the beginning of the book very interested, but I found the end wrapped up too quickly and didn't all make a lot of sense to me. There were almost too many coincidences of bad luck for Maeve.
December 31, 2017
I did not particular care for this book. It seemed to skip around quite a bit. Perhaps I feel this way because I took so long reading it. I had to keep adjusting to who the characters were. There was mystery involved, but it was rather a hodge podge of situations presented. I had not read the previous two books in this series and while I got the gist of the main characters background, it all seemed rather disjointed. I could not identify with any of the characters and they all seemed paper thin.
So many good books to read, that I most likely will not read another by this author.
I borrowed this book from the Live Oaks Public Library.
So many good books to read, that I most likely will not read another by this author.
I borrowed this book from the Live Oaks Public Library.
February 13, 2021
'Lie in Plain Sight' is the third in a series and readers who have not read the first two installments may well feel as if they have joined the conversation half way through.
I really did not enjoy this book as the characters were hard to like (they all lie, all the time) and the protagonist acts as if she is above the law. The underlying plot is overly complex and too little is revealed about events until right at the end of the novel. A don't mind a good mystery but in this one there is too much 'mystery' and not enough 'good'.
Barbieri has created a bitty, messy story which does not come together at all well. The result is irritating rather than being entertaining.
I really did not enjoy this book as the characters were hard to like (they all lie, all the time) and the protagonist acts as if she is above the law. The underlying plot is overly complex and too little is revealed about events until right at the end of the novel. A don't mind a good mystery but in this one there is too much 'mystery' and not enough 'good'.
Barbieri has created a bitty, messy story which does not come together at all well. The result is irritating rather than being entertaining.
April 26, 2018
Really enjoyable. I hadn’t read either of the previous books in this series, but Barbieri threw in just enough detail about the prior plots to keep me informed but not overwhelmed.
Maeve is a strong character. I will say I was confused a little about the end of one plot line- a little more explanation on the missing girl and why she was taken, what the villain meant to do, would’ve made this 5 Stars.
Maeve is a strong character. I will say I was confused a little about the end of one plot line- a little more explanation on the missing girl and why she was taken, what the villain meant to do, would’ve made this 5 Stars.
February 1, 2020
Meh. I only finished it to find out how it ended. The main character is unbelievable, a woman who takes the law into her own hands and is somehow better than the police. It also alluded to past experiences of hers which the writer assumes you know. (Apparently there are previous books with the same character but I don’t think reading them would have made me like her more.) Also too many other unrelated storylines going on, including another loosely related crime. Not worth the read.
September 23, 2018
Tripe! I hope Maeve gets in her silent Prius and drives away. I lost count of how many times her car was mentioned. God I hated this book and Maevy. Oh and I noticed a mistake when Maeve was thinking about the dinner she shared with her daughter the night before and the two pages later she referred to it as being three nights ago???
September 2, 2019
The story is good and held my attention, but it tried to do too much. There were conflicting plot lines and too many references to the past, that obviously the reader would only know if they'd read the previous books. Little confusing phrases like "buying leftover bread at the store". I'm glad I read it, but I would be looking to check out the previous books.
November 4, 2017
Just awful. Dry. Repetitive. The characters are two dimensional and predictable. The story limps in circles and never goes anywhere. I was bored out of my SKULL. I struggled valiantly to finish it but died of boredom in the end.
March 28, 2018
2 1/2 stars.
June 13, 2018
Third in a series...each a great read.
September 4, 2018
Ok story, but it kind if fell apart in the last few chapters. Didn't know it was 3rd in a series - maybe that's why it didn't hold up as a stand-alone...
November 15, 2018
Great series. I love the characters.
April 8, 2022
Could not get involved with the characters, and really did not like most of them. Too drawn out story line, I finished it, but I am now sure how.
March 27, 2023
I finally finished it,not really a fan.
September 28, 2023
Good book, but left me asking a few questions that won't be answered.
Read
October 21, 2023As I read the book I try to remember that Maeve is a good person. She comes across as crazy sometimes. Someone you might want to be afraid of.
February 3, 2024
great mystery
Read
October 20, 2016Excellent - the entire series
March 21, 2016
This was my first reading of a book by Maggie Barbieri, and I am impressed!! She writes with a deft touch; fully-developed, relatable characters, good (multiple) story lines, and a multi-layered mystery that still surprises at the end. What is not to like??
Maeve Conlon owns The Comfort Zone bakery in the small town of Farringville. She is a busy single mother to two daughters, Rebecca and Heather, is in a relationship with Detective Chris Larsson of the local police force, is deepening a relationship with a recently-found mentally handicapped older sister she never knew she had and has an ex-husband who doesn't want to remain on the sidelines. The woman has her hands full! When she meets Trish Dvorak at a college planning meeting for parents of seniors, Maeve easily relates to a single mom who has raised her daughter Taylor on her own and needs a job. Maeve tells her to come start work the next morning. Off to a good start, things quickly go awry when Maeve gets a call from the school nurse that Taylor is ill and needs to go home. Her mother Trish is out on a delivery for the bakery and can't be reached. The nurse tells Maeve that she is listed as the emergency contact and asks her permission to let Taylor walk home, 5 minutes away. Maeve gives it, but Taylor never makes it home. Feeling responsible, Maeve isn't content to let the police handle the disappearance, and begins to investigate on her own. She quickly finds out that the town of Farringville is full of people who have secrets and plenty of them. The story goes on in multi-layered ways, each story within the story intriguing in its own right. Things are not what they seem, and just when you think you have it figured out - you're wrong. I love books that keep you hanging until the end!
This book is a hard one to put down, and I highly recommend it. I will definitely be adding Maggie Barbieri to my "authors to look for" list!
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.
Maeve Conlon owns The Comfort Zone bakery in the small town of Farringville. She is a busy single mother to two daughters, Rebecca and Heather, is in a relationship with Detective Chris Larsson of the local police force, is deepening a relationship with a recently-found mentally handicapped older sister she never knew she had and has an ex-husband who doesn't want to remain on the sidelines. The woman has her hands full! When she meets Trish Dvorak at a college planning meeting for parents of seniors, Maeve easily relates to a single mom who has raised her daughter Taylor on her own and needs a job. Maeve tells her to come start work the next morning. Off to a good start, things quickly go awry when Maeve gets a call from the school nurse that Taylor is ill and needs to go home. Her mother Trish is out on a delivery for the bakery and can't be reached. The nurse tells Maeve that she is listed as the emergency contact and asks her permission to let Taylor walk home, 5 minutes away. Maeve gives it, but Taylor never makes it home. Feeling responsible, Maeve isn't content to let the police handle the disappearance, and begins to investigate on her own. She quickly finds out that the town of Farringville is full of people who have secrets and plenty of them. The story goes on in multi-layered ways, each story within the story intriguing in its own right. Things are not what they seem, and just when you think you have it figured out - you're wrong. I love books that keep you hanging until the end!
This book is a hard one to put down, and I highly recommend it. I will definitely be adding Maggie Barbieri to my "authors to look for" list!
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.
February 24, 2016
I thought this was a very well-written mystery with an intriguing plot. I initially wasn’t aware that this was the third book in a mystery series. It didn’t really affect me following the story, but I did regret not knowing the backstory when references to the previous novels were made. However, if you’re planning on reading the first two books in the series, don’t read this one just yet, as there are massive spoilers for both of the other mysteries.
The book is slightly dark at times, which I personally enjoy. Maeve, the main character, is extremely well-rounded. Readers get the sense that she is both headstrong and intelligent, but although her intentions are good she does ultimately make some mistakes in her personal life throughout the book. Her motivation in this installment of the series is obvious: the daughter of one of her employees goes missing, and Maeve feels responsible. While guilt is definitely a driving factor, she also has an odd sense that there is more to the disappearance, which leads her to attempt to find out what really happened that day and causes precarious situations with those close to her.
Again, I would recommend the book but only after having read the previous two novels in the series.
*Disclaimer* I received this book from NetGalley for this review.
The book is slightly dark at times, which I personally enjoy. Maeve, the main character, is extremely well-rounded. Readers get the sense that she is both headstrong and intelligent, but although her intentions are good she does ultimately make some mistakes in her personal life throughout the book. Her motivation in this installment of the series is obvious: the daughter of one of her employees goes missing, and Maeve feels responsible. While guilt is definitely a driving factor, she also has an odd sense that there is more to the disappearance, which leads her to attempt to find out what really happened that day and causes precarious situations with those close to her.
Again, I would recommend the book but only after having read the previous two novels in the series.
*Disclaimer* I received this book from NetGalley for this review.
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