Murder on the Precipice

Elizabeth Pennington #1

by Penny Goetjen

When murder checks in, don’t expect mints on your pillow….

Set in a deceptively warm and cozy inn, Murder on the Precipice depicts the story of a missing female guest with eerie similarities to an unsolved disappearance years earlier when the property was used as an all-girls school. Did the girl ignore warnings to stay away from the cliff walk after the fog rolls in at night? Or is the property's dark history repeating itself?

Manhattan interior designer Elizabeth Pennington puts the big city in her rearview mirror and returns to the inn, her childhood home where, in a tragic twist of fate, she lost her parents at a tender age. Faced with her grandmother’s failing health strained by the pressures of running the family business, Elizabeth navigates treacherous waters to save the inn from a killer in their midst. But in her search for the girl as a deadly hurricane barrels up the coast, she uncovers details that question everything she thought she knew about herself, her family and her past.

See why critics and readers alike are raving about the suspense novels of multi national award-winning storyteller Penny Goetjen.

“Penny Goetjen has that rare ability to quickly capture the reader’s attention and keep their interest from scene to glorious scene. There’s an elegance to her writings. She is a gifted storyteller and never disappoints.”
–Martin Herman, Author of the Will James Mysteries

Awarded TOP HONORS (Gold) in the Human Relations Indie Book Awards for Contemporary Realistic Fiction.

Genres: Mystery

309 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

National multi-award-winning author Penny Goetjen writes mysteries, crime fiction, and suspense novels where the settings are so colorful they become characters in their own right. A self-proclaimed eccentric, she enjoys the serenity of writing with the allure of flickering candlelight often late into the evening, the chaos while perched at a hi-top table in a local coffee shop with half the caffeinated world walking by, and the romance of strolling in a long flowy skirt while observing the world and collecting characters. Seven published novels in and her husband still sleeps with one eye open.

Reviews

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Oh dear...well, ok.

Why do I feel like I'm kicking a little puppy here (which is why I'm giving it an extra star)? But that's how I feel, because the book feels so...amateur. Like a first novel. Which, hey, kudos for effort. But...when I looked up the author after I read this novel, I found out this wasn't the case. Setback.

Quick plot summary: Elizabeth a (milquetoast) interior designer in NYC, is summoned by her grandmother to come up to their family home in Maine (once a former girl's school and now a cozy inn) because something has "happened". So, in line with the milquetoast that she is, Elizabeth sneaks out of her office on a Friday evening so that she can avoid her (stereotypically) hard-edged 50-something (with withered skin? in her 50's?!!), stiletto-heeled, hard-driven boss, who seems to delight in flicking cigarette ash on poor Elizabeth's Brooke's Brother suit. Because all really dedicated hard-driven female bosses are bitches on wheels. Ok, well, thanks for that Penny. I'm 63 and I still don't have "withered skin". Are you getting your descriptions from dames in nursing homes?

Elizabeth runs like a scared rabbit for her car (which she keeps talking about, ALL the time), a E7 Silver BMW (which she never refers to as a car, just the E7). She is startled because the mailroom clerk has followed her to deliver a package, which she tosses on the back seat. CLUE. If you care.

I will spare you pages (and I do mean pages) of the trip up to Maine where Goetjen does a whole lot of telling and not showing. By the time you get there, you want to talk with anyone other than Elizabeth, and you need a stiff drink to numb the boredom of being trapped in a car with her.

Elizabeth finds out that a 14 year old girl is missing and that the police will be there to investigate.

And here we go. At this point, I was all-in for some mystery and suspense.

We meet everyone. Including the hunky tennis pro (God what a stereotype), but uh-oh, sometimes he has a "sinister" look. But...she's attracted to him instantly. Not only that, she thinks she is falling for him...instantly. And he says to her he is "on her side". When you find out later who he is, you shake your head that someone in his position would even say something that stupid to someone he just met. Cue to employer: Fire Him.

Elizabeth decides to take the case because, you know, even though the police are now all over the place, only she can save the day. But, this is harder than it sounds because what follows is a litany of Elizabeth showing us how inept she is. She falls down. ALL the time. She hits her head. ALL the time. She faints, AAAAALLLLL the time. I haven't seen a protagonist faint this many times since the last time I read a regency romance.

Romance. That's the issue here. I have been known to enjoy a good romance novel. But. This book just can't decide what it wants to be. It's not really a mystery because you will figure out everything about this missing 14 year old girl, very, very early in the novel. It's not a suspense novel because, ummm, there's no suspense. It's more of romance novel, but I can practically feel the hackles raising by some very adept romance writers who execute this genre a heck of a lot better.

This book is just...dumb. You have the Head of Police wanting to arrest Elizabeth because he found something from the missing girl in her car. Never mind that Elizabeth was 6 hours away, IN NYC, at the time! But hey, I guess they don't look into alibis in Maine? It's ridiculous.

That's not the only ridiculous, implausible aspect to a book filled with ridiculous, implausible events, populated by a host of stereotypical characters. And the last couple of paragraphs at the end? Please, so dumb. I got an overpowering whiff of Reese Witherspoon exiting the Courthouse in Legally Blonde, which was scripted a whole lot better.

I got this book for free and I'm still thinking I could have read something else during that time. Or had a V-8.

I love mysteries. I love suspense novels. Combine them and you will have me at hello. But this is just a heap of milquetoast.

And lastly, can we please stop having characters talking to dead people? Is that a thing that we can lay to rest outside the paranormal genre (which is where it works its magic)?

Not recommended.

[Giulia · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 star review. This book has a promising premise that sort of ends up sputtering due to the complete dullness of the characters. I did not like or dislike the main character-Elizabeth sometimes referred to as Liz and Lizzie. She was quirky but to me she just was not interesting and the rest of the cast just seemed superficial. I give higher marks for the writing as it was not bad and liked the descriptive language it just seemed this story line was not as tightly woven as some other mysteries I have recently read. This leaned more toward romance and that romance was really mediocre in my opinion. However, that may have a market I could recommend this book to. I think my expectations were too high on this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I enjoyed this book. Parts of it felt a little pedestrian and some of the sentence structures seemed amateurish but the story was fast paced and interesting. No great surprises in store and indeed I worked out the plot very quickly but there was something appealing about the book which just kept me from putting it down. Thanks to #NetGalley for the free ARC.

[Missi Martin (Stockwell) · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOLY COW !!! OMG !!!! OH MY GOD !!

I don't even know how to start this review...... I am completely at a loss of words. I don't know how to fully wrap my head around what I read in Murder on the Precipice by Penny Goetjen.....and I mean this in the best way possible. Goetjen not only captures your attention, she holds it hostage !!

When readers begin reading Murder on the Precipice everything is normal....we are hanging with Elizabeth, Lizzi, Pennington, who is an interior designer with an overbearing boss, is a work-a-holic and is getting ready to go home to Maine for the Labor Day weekend. She is returning to her family home which is the Pennington Point Inn which her grandmother Amelia owns and runs. Her grandmother had called her asking for help thinking one of the handymen has gone missing. Elizabeth's college friend, Rashelle, works at the Inn so Lizzi is excited to spend time with her as well as her grandmother.

When Lizzi arrives not only does she hear about the handyman missing but it also appears that a 14 year old girl that is staying at the Inn with her parents is missing as well. Before Lizzi can settle in and unpack, she is introduced to the new tennis pro teacher and learns that an attorney is harrassing Amelia to sell the Inn and all the property that goes with it. Lizzi also cannot get away from her overworking boss who constantly calls her looking for designs for one of their biggest clients.

While you are reading Murder on the Precipice you will be totally engrossed in the story and Goetjen takes the reader down quite a few different avenues but they will all bring you back to the Inn. Lizzi definitely has her hands full trying to navigate everything and when the police put her at the top of the suspect list in the missing girl case, you will be shocked at what she does !!!

An old missing girl case....a current missing girl case......old tunnels underground......the lighthouse .....family.....friends old and new.....secrets old and new.....commitment.......mystery .....hurricane.......and so much more when you open this book !!!

There is so much more that I would love to tell you about regarding Murder on the Precipice but I don't want to give any more away and I really think you should read it for yourself. I highly recommend grabbing a copy of this book and escaping to your favorite quiet place....you are not going to want to be disturbed !!!

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

About half-way through the book, it became interesting. That said, I will compliment the author on her wonderful skill with creating environment and setting. Great details. It was likable enough, but not necessarily a book I would run to tell my friends about.

The story itself was complicated and a bit contrived. And unfortunately, several elements of the mystery were easy to figure out. There were a lot of characters, and for some reason, the author chose to alternate between full names and nicknames or first name and last name for some characters, which made things a little more confusing.

While I was intrigued to keep reading to see how the author unraveled it all, things came off more and more contrived. But applause to Penny Goetjen for diligently finding ways to make illogical things work. Unfortunately, her efforts showed. Reading this book was like watching the puppeteer during the puppet show. She's a good enough writer, but maybe not a good story-teller? I can't quite put my finger on what failed for me in this book.

The protagonist (Elizabeth, Lizzie, Liz...she is referred to by all three names in the story) is ok. I think so much more could have been made of her, especially with her creative career and NYC life. The character, Kurt, is likable. He's sometimes referred to by Mitchell , his last name, which can also be misconstrued as a first name.

One trait of this story that bothered me is that the narrator asks a lot of questions, a lot. As if the reader were too feeble to wonder those things on his/her own. It felt to me that the author worked too hard to implant questions in the readers mind to lead the reader to think along a certain path. I think the author needs to trust the reader more.

The setting is wonderful, the contrast of the protagonist's city life with the rocky coastline life in Maine is wonderful, and I wish there was a little more of that happening. The events and obstacles that play out the plot are a bit confusing, and you'll have to just take it all with a grain of salt for the sake of story.

But anyone who loves a mystery and this type of setting will like this book. It's just OK. Not terrible, not great.

[Myreadbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was immediately attracted to the cover. We see Elizabeth in the middle of the night looking towards an illuminated tower.

The story tells us about the life of Elizabeth architect at Manathan. She grew up in an inn and returns there thanks to the invitation of her grandmother. Once she arrives at the top, she learns that a young woman has disappeared, she finds similarities to an investigation that occurred years earlier. She will seek answers to this disappearance and save the inn from her childhood. Except that the more she goes forward in her search, the more she will learn about her past, her family.

A moving and captivating story. I read this book in one go. Elizabeth's character is endearing. Look forward to reading another book by this author with potential.

[Margery · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a friend who knows I love Louise Penny and thought I would really enjoy this book. Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It's such an earnest yet pathetic book, struggling to decide whether it wants to be a mystery or a romance novel, succeeding at neither. Oh, and let's throw in a ghost, because, well, why not.
I really really really wanted to like this book, both for my friend's sake (what the heck am I going to say to her?!) and because the idea of a mystery at an inn in Maine appealed to me. It isn't absolutely dreadful. I'm trying to work up the courage to read the next book in the series, to see if the author improves. Has anyone done that? Does she get better?

[Helen Castrucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was fast moving and kept me interested throughout my reading of it. I thought the characters were relatable and realistic, each with his or her own flaws. It’s an easy to read story and provides a nice change of pace from some of the heavier books I sometimes read. I will definitely read other books by this author.

[David Whitesell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book but often felt that the main character was too willing to let unanswered questions stay unanswered. It bothered me throughout the book. I did order the authors first book and look forward to reading it.

[Mary Rush · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the this book to be a great read. The characters were interesting and fun to follow. The writing was very descriptive and transports the reader to Maine. This is a book to enjoy reading so kick off your shoes, put your feet up and just have fun.
I recommend this book immensely.

[Grace Steward · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Penny at an Art Fair in Mystic, CT where I purchased 'Murder on the Precipice.' What a great read! There were so many twist and turns. I really could not put this down! I cannot wait to read more of her work!https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit...#

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot was wonderful and the characters believable.
I felt the pain the heroine was enduring.

[Mai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid and athmospheric murder mystery. I liked it and will likely read the first novel by this author.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

[Brenda Freeman · Rating 2 out of 5]

The books characters didn’t call to me. I kept expecting the best friend to be one of the bad guys. Story didn’t flow well.

[Sarah Whelan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read.

[Holly Szydlo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was about Maine- that is why I read it and that is why I liked it. I needed a real easy read right now.

[Kathy]

Thanks for making me a lucky winner of this book through the First Reads program, and I look forward to reading and reviewing.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, it was easy to read and follow along with and the characters were very likable.

[Debby Hill]

I loved this book. Kept me gripped through the entire book. Fascinating characters and outstanding setting. Highly recommended!!

[Deni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

[sylvia Dobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really bad, but not really great. Weird phrasing ( a handful of ibuprofen?? & others) Characters were one dimensional. Police made to seem incompetent. It was an easy read though. It was 2.5 stars so I gave it a 3.

[Cindy Eastman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Between the engaging mystery and the beautiful descriptions of the landscape, reading this book was an enjoyable experience that came to an end much too soon. I made the mistake of taking it with me to a recent family wedding, the mistake being that I had to keep putting it down to attend events!
What I loved about this book was that I was caught up from the beginning with Elizabeth's journey and was not disappointed throughout. The story keeps the reader guessing, too. Just when I thought I had something or someone figured out - I had figured wrong!
The story is well-paced and the characters are accessible and sympathetic including the formidable and beautiful coast of Maine. With winter almost upon us, this is a perfect sit-by-the-fire mystery - get it for yourself soon!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a Connecticut author whose book I found at our local library. It kept my interest throughout, and the author knows how to build suspense. The characters were not very realistic. Most of the story takes place at a historical inn on the coast of Maine. Being a lover of that area, helped sustain my interest in the book. But really, with a category IV Hurricane approaching, who would seek refuge in a lighthouse built out on a breakwater?! Lizzi's arrest & escape from the Maine State Police was also beyond belief. Some of the descriptions of life in New York City, the place where Lizzi worked & lived, did seem more accurate (personally, I hate the city & can only take very small doses of it).

[Veronnica · Rating 3 out of 5]

The commencement of the book was very well written and flowed in a gentle way but later on the story got a bit off track and seem to be a bit rushed. That was disappointed me but reading about the coast of Maine and the environmental factors which occur in this location intrigued me and kept me wanting to know more about the story. overall, well done. I enjoyed the story and can't wait to know what will happen next ....... if there is to be a continuation of the story??

[June Hyjek · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Precipice is a wonderfully written mystery with characters that are so likable you feel like you want to protect from the evil acts you see happening around them! Set in a small ocean-side inn in Maine, the scenery is beautifully described and you can imagine yourself actually there. If you want a mystery in which you feel as though you're part of the story and find yourself deeply caring about the characters and the outcome, The Precipice is a must read!