A disaster waiting to be read...
I wanted to love this cozy mystery with it's really cute cover and blurb. From the beginning we're introduced to a lot of characters, none of which were described enough to give them a face and help distinguish them, other than the grandmother and her two adult granddaughters who all run the manor house. Then a murder mystery weekend is added to the story line, and all of these characters are given mystery story names, professions, and costumes. In addition to the original characters, the managers and staff of the mystery management company and actors are added to create a large cast, each now with two names and professions, that are nearly impossible to keep track of. The plot holes started to develop on page 51 and the story continued to lose it's credibility for me right up to the end.
Page 51, Mallory is trying figure out who she can double up in the rooms, as the manor is full, but when Det. Kaden aka Det. Bones decides to stay because of the snow storm, Mallory now has a room for him.
On page 134 Eve comments that she doubted 'little Boobtube was at the desk'. No one was identified as Boobtube in the story.
The infamous generator was started by Emilion, while it was still inside. Everyone knows you don't start a generator inside. The basement of this huge manor must be equally vast, however, Emilion was overcome by CO only a few minutes after starting the generator. It would take a lot longer than the half hour everyone was in the basement to be overcome by the CO. Page 144, when Daemon wandered into the kitchen for a snack, the basement door was open and he could hear the generator running. In the next sentence, he opens the basement door to find Emilion nearly unconsciousness on the steps. Page 151, 'thank goodness Daemon had noticed the open door and gone down to shut it (the generator) off.' How can he open a door that was already open? Later the generator is referred to as 'the mysterious generator situation', when there was no mystery. It had all been explained by Emilion.
And while this is playing out in the basement, Nana stated she could hear the generator running and others are asking repeatedly why haven't they started the generator. This became really irritating quickly. On page 148 Mallory goes upstairs and a light is on a guest's room. The power is still off. The generator was turned off and one room out of dozens has a light on...the one she's going to snoop in. Page 157, when she gets to her 3rd floor apartment, it has full lights. This is just left hanging out there without any explanation...did someone trip breakers at the box? If there's electricity there is also heat, but not in this story.
The shed with Genevieve's body in it was locked, only Mallory has the key, but it was a location that many went in and out of, as if it weren't.
Page 207, Genevieve's cell phone indicated she'd made calls during this blizzard of a snow storm when power was out, the land line was down, and no one else could get a cell signal. Miraculous!
Page 216, Eve comments about going to check on the corpse in the shed, 'the smell won't bother me none', however, the corpse was in the below freezing temperatures in the unheated shed, so there wouldn't be any decay or 'smell'. Why would you check on a corpse? It's not going anywhere!
Page 219, Mallory calls the police and she's immediately placed on hold. That wouldn't happen, if the police line was busy her call would route to another emergency operator.
Page 230, everyone is told to pull out their driver's license. Other than the men who may have theirs in their wallet if it's in their pocket, the women would not be schlepping their handbags around with them in a murder mystery game in a huge mansion. Everyone was in costume, so it's unlikely anyone had their license with them. Same with the scene about their cell phones, which all ended up in the fire. That was an entirely unnecessary occurrence that just added to the lack of substance. Too absurd!
The mystery story is based around a valuable coin. Why would Nana ever take it from it's hiding place at all and risk it being taken or lost? Why did Mallory slip the coin to Danior who took it outside? How did Daemon get a coin out of Danior's inside pocket when she was zipped up in a heavy winter coat with the snow falling?
Then we have the ever-intelligent use of 'Duh', page 175, lines such as 'What was you guys?', page 105, (I can't even figure out what that line was supposed to be) and the many, many typos that all wrap up this story as a complete disaster waiting to be read. The mystery is how this book made it to press with all of these editing and plot errors. The other mystery is that I would still be interested in trying to read other stories by this author and hope this is a one-up.