Appliqued to Death

Home Economics Mystery #1

by Kathleen Suzette

A Midwest high school. A home economics teacher turned amateur sleuth. Two murdered teachers.

April 1955

Mary Taylor never planned on becoming an amateur sleuth, but when another teacher at Salyers High School ends up dead and her best friend is a suspect, she can’t sit idly by. With her brother and father on the Salyers police force, she’ll have to make sure she doesn’t step on any toes while investigating.

When a second teacher is murdered, Mary digs deeper into the investigation to help catch the killer. Home economics was never supposed to be like this.

Genres: Cozy Mystery

232 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 29, 2019

Reviews

[Tari · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun trip back to 1955 where Mary and Daniel seemed like a grown up Nancy Drew who married Ned with just one sidekick of Bess or George. I'd say Peggy might be a good mixture of them both. It was an interesting concept for a mystery story job too. Mary and Peggy were both Home Ec teachers. Mary's brother and dad were both on the police force, and they somewhat tolerated her checking into the death of two different high school teachers from the school where she taught. The other teachers were hoping there wasn't some psycho out there killing teachers, but Mary and Peggy thought it was a little more personal for whoever the killer was. I loved how Daniel got into the whole mystery thing too, but he was so much fun and liked to joke around too.

There weren't a lot of choices for killer, and I went back and forth on my decision. I liked that the person was apprehended quietly for a change. Since I enjoyed these characters so much, I was happy to see that there was another book listed here on GR, but when I went to the Amazon link, it was a "page not found." Maybe there's been a revision, and it got pulled while that's fixed--I did notice some typos in this book. I really do want to read the second book and see what kind of adventure Mary and Peggy get into next. There was one minor thing that was left hanging, and I'm thinking maybe that it'll be cleared up in the next book.

[Jeanie Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appliqued to Death, the first in the Home Economics Mystery series by Kathleen Suzette if a fun book, but historical fiction should not include my lifetime. It is the 1950's and home economics teacher Mary Taylor enjoys most things about her job. She always figured she would be a housewife long before now but with no children she might as well continue teaching. Her best friend is the other Home Ec teacher and her sweet husband teaches history at the same school. The two big irritations are the art teacher who gets away everything, and the principal who chews her out for driving her convertible with the top down and playing that awful rock-and-roll music in front of the students. The effort to bring in many elements identified with the '50's is cute but it slows down the plot a bit. Mary is a very modern woman in many ways, so when her best friend is the prime suspect in a murder, they join together to jumps in to investigate.

[R · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've loved all the books that I've read by Kathleen Suzette. In fact, I got Kindle Unlimited so that I could go through her library at any speed that I wanted to use. (Of course, I've discovered a great many other gems on KU, but that was my original reason for picking it up.)

I decided to give this one a try, and I thought I would really like it, but I have to admit it's been the only one of her books that I simply DNFed. I did hop to the end to see who committed the murders, but I just couldn't keep reading. I think I gave up at something like 65%.

The writing is fine. The characters and voice are OK. I simply couldn't connect with this one. I don't even think I can really say what it was, but I wasn't excited about reading this one after I got started.

I wondered, when I first opened it, why it was only the first in a series (where there are no more books) when she's got so many books in her other wonderful series. Now, I think I understand.

I would recommend you give this a try and judge for yourself, especially if you normally love her cozy mysteries, but I was less than thrilled with this one.

This does not, however, mean that I won't keep reading all the series that I know I love, and I'll certainly try all the new ones to come!

[Suzanne Perryman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appliqués to death

I liked the story and the plot however there were still some unanswered questions after reading everything. I will look for the next book in the series to get answers to my questions

[Valorie Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is an okay book!!!!

I couldn't stand the manipulative Principal Jefferson, the way he treated everyone.
Mary Taylor seems like a good teacher.
I couldn't finish book. But i went to the end to find out who did it. I got to chapter 8 or 9.
Someone else may like it.

[Nana Fields · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it!!!

[Krystyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

One can be a mistake but two .........

A great read with a nice sense of the attitudes at the time. Mind you having been asked to stop attending home economic classes (the theory was great, the practical - well let's just say my rock cakes were used as doorstops and my dress never did fit) I can only admire the women that taught the subjects. A great plot of the death of a high school teacher and then another one. The characters really fit the time period well. The women more or less content to be overshadowed by the men and the men thinking that they had to show the little woman what was good for her. Surprised that she didn't talk more to her brother about the things she had found out and heard
She hadn't thought that her married life would have both of them teaching at the high school but babies failed to appear. Now she taught sewing/dressmaking to the girls. However her life is upturned when the art teacher is murdered and her BFF is one of the suspects. Maybe a little snooping was in order. Add in another death, lots of gossip, a young girl in the family way (really thought the girl would consider her as an adoption possibility), jealousy and lots of drumours. Will the killer be found?

[Suzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute cozy type of mystery and a fairly quick read. I like the 1950's theme and the Home economics class setting; Mary Taylor teaches the sewing classes and her bestie teaches the cooking classes. When the murder occurs, the principle behaves suspiciously, the police are looking closely at Mary's friend--- her dad and brother are cops---but they are not sharing all the details. Mary feels the need to investigate with her friend and the story picks up steam. Though it is not a quick read, it is fun !

[Anita Burkett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Nice

A very interesting book. I loved thinking back to my schools days while reading this story. It was nice to reminisce about the ideas, clothing, cars etc of the past.