by Barbara Kelley
Sweets Assessment is book #9 in the Sweet Shop Mystery series by Wendy Meadows. This series follows Margaret Nichols, owner of the town's candy shop and amateur private investigator; her 20-year-old son, Zack, and every mother's dream child; and Detective David Graham, Margaret's gentleman friend (in their 40s, you really can't call them girlfriend and boyfriend). This book also includes Ariel, David's 15-year-old daughter, of whom he only recently discovered; and Gilly, Zack's beautiful Oriental-American girlfriend.
Not only is Margaret a candy shop owner, but she is also a private investigator with a website and everything. So, she and Detective Graham work on murder cases together. She has a keen eye for detail, and in previous books has almost been killed herself. This episode is about a 98 year old woman, who was as energetic as a 20-year-old, who is murdered. Margaret snoops around a lot, like any other sleuth. Margaret Nichols reminds me of James Rockford in "The Rockford Files" series of the 1970s. Every time you turn around she's getting hit over the head, just like Rockford. This time, her son, Zack, takes her to the hospital for a CT scan to make sure she doesn't have a concussion, which she doesn't. She must have a really hard head.
Later in the story, Zack, Gilly, and David wind up in the hospital and three visitors come to see them: Stacy and Simone are two other business women friends of Margaret's, and Margaret's residential neighbor, Kyle. Stacy owns the little café next door to where Margaret's candy shop is located. Kyle lives across the street from Margaret's house and is a military veteran in his 30s. I'm mentioning this about Kyle because he just pops into the hospital section without any mention of when he came to be there. If this is the first book you read in the series, you wouldn't know who Kyle is.
I like the way the author uses the first person narrative in this series. Some of these books were previously written in third person narrative, but I like it much better now.
Of course, there is the proverbial murder of the old lady, and Margaret solves it, nearly getting herself killed again in the process. I gave this book 5 stars.