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Bed-and-Breakfast Mysteries #11
September Mourn
Murder is nothing to crow about…
Fall has fallen upon Judith McMonigle Flynn, leaving her Hillside Manor nearly devoid of guests. And what better cure for the off-season blahs than a brief bout of B&B sitting for a friend amid the quiet rustic splendor of secluded Chavez Island? Judith and cousin Renie both are more than ready for some relaxation. But their peace goes to pieces when Renie conks an odious interloping blowhard on the noggin with a heavy china dish—and, moments later, the woozy lout takes a fatal tumble down an inconvenient staircase. Judith suspects that death by dinnerware was not the real cause of this fellow’s demise. But to prove her cantankerous cuz innocent, she’ll have to uncover the real killer from among the motley island crew. And that could pile a lot more nastiness on Judith’s plate than the harried bed-and-breakfast hostess can consume in one sitting!
Fall has fallen upon Judith McMonigle Flynn, leaving her Hillside Manor nearly devoid of guests. And what better cure for the off-season blahs than a brief bout of B&B sitting for a friend amid the quiet rustic splendor of secluded Chavez Island? Judith and cousin Renie both are more than ready for some relaxation. But their peace goes to pieces when Renie conks an odious interloping blowhard on the noggin with a heavy china dish—and, moments later, the woozy lout takes a fatal tumble down an inconvenient staircase. Judith suspects that death by dinnerware was not the real cause of this fellow’s demise. But to prove her cantankerous cuz innocent, she’ll have to uncover the real killer from among the motley island crew. And that could pile a lot more nastiness on Judith’s plate than the harried bed-and-breakfast hostess can consume in one sitting!
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
32 people are currently reading
490 people want to read
About the author
Mary Daheim
94 books441 followersMary Rene Richardson Daheim was an American writer of romance and mystery novels.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
September 20, 2019
This was a an enjoyable mystery. I loved cousin Renie’s character. I would definitely read another book in this series.
September 25, 2015
Things just keep going wrong for Judith and her funny cousin from the moment they arrive on the island. The residents are very secretive and are not the friendliest. A lot of weird things happen there in the month of September....It is still a shock to everyone when a customer at the B&B Judith is running, is found murdered minutes after her and her cousin had a disagreement with him. Judith and her cousin dig deep to solve the murder and discover the town has more secrets hidden. I loved this cozy little island. Cousin was so funny and i enjoyed reading her interactions with Judith. I will most definately be reading another cozy read in this series.
** Side note: I loved the cover!? Who doesn't love scarecrows surrounded by pumpkins?!" **
** Side note: I loved the cover!? Who doesn't love scarecrows surrounded by pumpkins?!" **
January 3, 2015
It has been a couple of years since I ear one of the Bed and Breakfast Mystery series. I had forgotten just how enjoyable they are to read. If you want to just let yourself go and not think about the world today this is a really good read. Seeing, again, what is happening to Judith and her cousin, Renie, is always fun. The other reviews of this book give story details - I don't want to do that. I just want to let you know this is a good and fun read.
August 27, 2017
I found the B and B story a little too confusing. The two cousins get envolved in a murder. However the search for answers turns into prying. They became too concerned about things that had no bearing on the murder. An interesting but confusing story.
January 1, 2015
Cousins go to babysit a b&b on an island. One hits obnoxious guy over head with plate and next thing he is dead from another blow to head.
Pretty Good. Judith and Renie at Chavez Island.
Pretty Good. Judith and Renie at Chavez Island.
January 26, 2015
Ok cozy mystery of a small island, a guest murdered and old secrets.
October 9, 2022
A good cozy mystery. It’s plot is a bit round about and confused – but it all eventually comes out …. Judy Flynn operates a B & B in the North West. Her husband is a police detective. A “down time” in her B & B business comes just after Labor Day. – Her cousin/best friend lives near-by. Out of the blue Judy gets a letter from an old acquaintance, Jeanne, whom she knew slightly in high school and had run into at a conference for B & B owners. Jeanne’s husband had recently died and she need to just get away from everything for a few days. Jeannie asked if Judy could take over her B & B pm Puget Sound for a few days during this lull in business and in tern, she would take care of Judy’s B & B in January so Judy and her husband could get away. ….. It sounded like a good deal – and Judyk’s cousin Renee could come along with Juday to the small island where the B & B was located. The island had few permanent residences, but it was connected to a larger island by an interisland ferry that made the trip back and forth several times a day. Things started out well until the evening of the first day when an obnoxious guest was murdered……… Judy tried to figure out what happened, but it seemed that the few residents of the island all were hiding something
September 25, 2018
The zany cousins are up to their old tricks! Judith & Renie are filling in for an old high school friend at her B&B on tiny Chavez Island. It's a quiet, beautiful spot, but rather isolated. Everything seems wonderful until the murder! The 2 are on the case trying hard to get straight answers from the close-mouthed islanders & being foiled at every turn. Very twisty & tricky! I didn't solve til the very end. See how well you do!
February 23, 2021
Another favorite
I've always been a huge fan of this series, and once in a while, I stumble upon a book that I somehow missed reading.
That's what happened with this book, so as soon as I bought it, I started to read it. I absolutely love Judith, Renie, Joe, Bill, Gertrude, and everyone else who makes this series so fantastic.
I've always been a huge fan of this series, and once in a while, I stumble upon a book that I somehow missed reading.
That's what happened with this book, so as soon as I bought it, I started to read it. I absolutely love Judith, Renie, Joe, Bill, Gertrude, and everyone else who makes this series so fantastic.
April 22, 2025
Julia and Renie get roped into subbing at a Bed and Breakfast, while the owner went for R&R. They were caught up in a murder, of course. They were on an Island with many secrets, from the residents and they had to find out who the murderer was. This book is very mixed with residents, home owners and many mysteries. Have fun reading and guessing who-did-it?
April 26, 2021
I've read a few of this series and they are just ok. The dead husband bashing is sort of weird. The two stars are more like nosy neighbors who might happen to solve a murder like some other mystery series.
May 18, 2017
Love this series!!!
January 24, 2019
An island adventure! Not quite how I'd like to spend my time on an island, but a great pair of cousins to do it with are the stars of this cozy mystery.
July 4, 2019
This is a pleasant, humorous, slow flowing murder mystery. I enjoyed it.
July 8, 2019
3.5
Cozy mystery novel about two cousins heading to a small island in the Pacific Northwest. Judith owns a B and B back home and trades places w an acquaintance.
Cozy mystery novel about two cousins heading to a small island in the Pacific Northwest. Judith owns a B and B back home and trades places w an acquaintance.
August 22, 2020
Another book set away from home, and another book that I have a hard time picturing in reality. There was a good job done with bait and switch, though.
October 3, 2023
Enjoyable cozy mystery. No big twists or surprises but an interesting isolated island setting helps create atmosphere.
September 25, 2025
Cute lil "whodunit" book my daughter picked up from a lil library for me. I waited until September to read "September Mourn".
July 24, 2016
I have an affinity for cozy mysteries. They generally aren't written in pursuit of a spot on the bestseller list; rather, cozies are written to give the reader a sense of comfort and calm (ironically, by way of murder).
My mom read cozies to escape her three eccentric young daughters and grumpy husband: one daughter, the artist, painted five-foot tall green flowers on the side of the freshly painted rental when she was four; the adventurous daughter asked which way north was, and was found by neighbors five hours later walking up the beach, wearing a backpack, in pursuit of Santa in the North Pole (we lived on an island--she wasn't the brightest of the three of us); and the oldest daughter (that would be I) caused her first-year kindergarten teacher to quit by demanding that all classroom toy soldiers and toy weapons be removed from the classroom so that her classmates would not become violent adults, and that the teacher immediately stop smoking on her breaks because she would surely die of lung cancer. As to my mother's husband, he had some strange notion that feeding 40 stray cats, a stray goat, a duck, and 4 turtles (not stray) out of a 2-bedroom apartment was odd. He also became irrationally upset when the cat gave birth in his shoe. So you see, for my mother, it was either read a cozy or drink (or possibly dispose of the children and husband).
Years later, when my grandmother came to live with us (bigger house, different country, revolving pet door, dad retired and usually lost in Best Buy, girls now goth, theater geek, and raver) we slowly replaced her true crime books with cozies in order to keep her from roaming the house at night after taking her pain pills, looking for the Son of Sam whilst armed with a shoe horn.
And all this is how I came to read cozies myself, because they were always there to help me escape my crazy family, you could carry on a screaming match with a sibling and not miss much in the book, and thanks to grandma's Dahmer intervention, there were always a shitload in the house. (Serious reading was done away from the insane people.)I have an affinity for cozy mysteries. They generally aren't written in pursuit of a spot on the bestseller list; rather, cozies are written to give the reader a sense of comfort and calm (ironically, by way of murder).
My mom read cozies to escape her three eccentric young daughters and grumpy husband: one daughter, the artist, painted five-foot tall green flowers on the side of the freshly painted rental when she was four; the adventurous daughter asked which way north was, and was found by neighbors five hours later walking up the beach, wearing a backpack, in pursuit of Santa in the North Pole (we lived on an island--she wasn't the brightest of the three of us); and the oldest daughter (that would be I) caused her first-year kindergarten teacher to quit by demanding that all classroom toy soldiers and toy weapons be removed from the classroom so that her classmates would not become violent adults, and that the teacher immediately stop smoking on her breaks because she would surely die of lung cancer. As to my mother's husband, he had some strange notion that feeding 40 stray cats, a stray goat, a duck, and 4 turtles (not stray) out of a 2-bedroom apartment was odd. He also became irrationally upset when the cat gave birth in his shoe. So you see, for my mother, it was either read a cozy or drink (or possibly dispose of the children and husband).
Years later, when my grandmother came to live with us (bigger house, different country, revolving pet door, dad retired and usually lost in Best Buy, girls now goth, theater geek, and raver) we slowly replaced her true crime books with cozies in order to keep her from roaming the house at night after taking her pain pills, looking for the Son of Sam whilst armed with a shoe horn.
And all this is how I came to read cozies myself, because they were always there to help me escape my crazy family, you could carry on a screaming match with a sibling and not miss much in the book, and thanks to grandma's Dahmer intervention, there were always a shitload in the house. (Serious reading was done away from the insane people.)
My mom read cozies to escape her three eccentric young daughters and grumpy husband: one daughter, the artist, painted five-foot tall green flowers on the side of the freshly painted rental when she was four; the adventurous daughter asked which way north was, and was found by neighbors five hours later walking up the beach, wearing a backpack, in pursuit of Santa in the North Pole (we lived on an island--she wasn't the brightest of the three of us); and the oldest daughter (that would be I) caused her first-year kindergarten teacher to quit by demanding that all classroom toy soldiers and toy weapons be removed from the classroom so that her classmates would not become violent adults, and that the teacher immediately stop smoking on her breaks because she would surely die of lung cancer. As to my mother's husband, he had some strange notion that feeding 40 stray cats, a stray goat, a duck, and 4 turtles (not stray) out of a 2-bedroom apartment was odd. He also became irrationally upset when the cat gave birth in his shoe. So you see, for my mother, it was either read a cozy or drink (or possibly dispose of the children and husband).
Years later, when my grandmother came to live with us (bigger house, different country, revolving pet door, dad retired and usually lost in Best Buy, girls now goth, theater geek, and raver) we slowly replaced her true crime books with cozies in order to keep her from roaming the house at night after taking her pain pills, looking for the Son of Sam whilst armed with a shoe horn.
And all this is how I came to read cozies myself, because they were always there to help me escape my crazy family, you could carry on a screaming match with a sibling and not miss much in the book, and thanks to grandma's Dahmer intervention, there were always a shitload in the house. (Serious reading was done away from the insane people.)I have an affinity for cozy mysteries. They generally aren't written in pursuit of a spot on the bestseller list; rather, cozies are written to give the reader a sense of comfort and calm (ironically, by way of murder).
My mom read cozies to escape her three eccentric young daughters and grumpy husband: one daughter, the artist, painted five-foot tall green flowers on the side of the freshly painted rental when she was four; the adventurous daughter asked which way north was, and was found by neighbors five hours later walking up the beach, wearing a backpack, in pursuit of Santa in the North Pole (we lived on an island--she wasn't the brightest of the three of us); and the oldest daughter (that would be I) caused her first-year kindergarten teacher to quit by demanding that all classroom toy soldiers and toy weapons be removed from the classroom so that her classmates would not become violent adults, and that the teacher immediately stop smoking on her breaks because she would surely die of lung cancer. As to my mother's husband, he had some strange notion that feeding 40 stray cats, a stray goat, a duck, and 4 turtles (not stray) out of a 2-bedroom apartment was odd. He also became irrationally upset when the cat gave birth in his shoe. So you see, for my mother, it was either read a cozy or drink (or possibly dispose of the children and husband).
Years later, when my grandmother came to live with us (bigger house, different country, revolving pet door, dad retired and usually lost in Best Buy, girls now goth, theater geek, and raver) we slowly replaced her true crime books with cozies in order to keep her from roaming the house at night after taking her pain pills, looking for the Son of Sam whilst armed with a shoe horn.
And all this is how I came to read cozies myself, because they were always there to help me escape my crazy family, you could carry on a screaming match with a sibling and not miss much in the book, and thanks to grandma's Dahmer intervention, there were always a shitload in the house. (Serious reading was done away from the insane people.)
May 20, 2025
Recently re-read for the third time over the decades. My favorites in the series are when Judith and Renie go somewhere and this is one of the best. The mystery is good and the ending makes sense without being far fetched. My only problem with this is the that the lead up to them actually leaving Hillside Manor is too long (common in the books where the cousins get away). This could be accomplished with a lot less verbiage. When I re-read these, I just skip over those parts to get to the meat of the mystery.
June 12, 2009
Judith Flynn and her cousin Renie go to one of the remote, beautiful Santa Lucia islands to help out a fellow bed-and-breakfast hostess. There are fewer than a dozen people living on the island, but someone, apparently, has murdered one of the guests. Judith's sympathetic manner and subtle questions unearth hidden secrets among the close-lipped residents.
August 18, 2010
I have a pile of these B&B books by Daheim in my bedroom. I enjoy them, but like most series, they begin to be predictable in many ways. I do love Cousin Renie though. Judith is just too nice for me most of the time.
February 14, 2014
I enjoyed this entry in the series. I'm a sucker for tying events from the past into a present day murder. This is one time where there were enough characters where things got confusing for me at times.
January 21, 2023
Still an awesome series. This time the adventure is a B&B but away from home. Many apparent unrelated clues, most of which were answered by the end. Kept my attention desiring to see what came next. Can't wait until the next.
June 8, 2011
One of the better books of the Bed and Breakfast series. It reminded me of a show I watched with murder on a remote Washington island.
August 19, 2011
I love the B&B books. I love all the new characters that are introduced in each book.
March 4, 2012
Liked it!
Read
February 3, 2013Another great book. The series is entertaining and each time she finds a dead body you just know she won't be able to leave it to the professionals.
March 24, 2013
I think this was the first "away" book I didn't care for in this series. These characters were odd and dull and mostly boring.
October 25, 2013
Wooden.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews