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Maggie Belle #1
Always a Sleuth
Maggie Belle wonders if life has more excitement in store?
After her only daughter’s wedding, Magdalene Belle is out of a home. Faced with the fear of change, Maggie moves to the small town of Blooming Hill, home to a rustic and fairly dilapidated caring home for the elderly.
In her sixties, and feeling the ache of arthritis in her bones, Maggie is excited about her future in Buttercup Villa.
Once settled in her cozy cottage at the Villa, Maggie meets a range of wildly entertaining characters.
Shortly after her arrival, Maggie realizes that once a sleuth, always a sleuth, as she is thrown into her very first investigation.
The elderly sleuth, with decades of wisdom and experience under her belt, is called upon to solve another mystery.
Could this mystery be attributed to dementia or is it a bona fide crime? New to that possibility, only time will tell.
As Maggie embarks on this new and exciting chapter of her life, she seeks to teach others that people are predictable and a kind heart goes a long way. Will she be able to solve this perplexing case?
After her only daughter’s wedding, Magdalene Belle is out of a home. Faced with the fear of change, Maggie moves to the small town of Blooming Hill, home to a rustic and fairly dilapidated caring home for the elderly.
In her sixties, and feeling the ache of arthritis in her bones, Maggie is excited about her future in Buttercup Villa.
Once settled in her cozy cottage at the Villa, Maggie meets a range of wildly entertaining characters.
Shortly after her arrival, Maggie realizes that once a sleuth, always a sleuth, as she is thrown into her very first investigation.
The elderly sleuth, with decades of wisdom and experience under her belt, is called upon to solve another mystery.
Could this mystery be attributed to dementia or is it a bona fide crime? New to that possibility, only time will tell.
As Maggie embarks on this new and exciting chapter of her life, she seeks to teach others that people are predictable and a kind heart goes a long way. Will she be able to solve this perplexing case?
- GenresCozy Mystery
96 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 26, 2022
87 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 13, 2022
Senior sleuth
Maggie's entry to her new retirement home went much better than she expected. Her own cottage, new friends and a mystery to solve
Maggie's entry to her new retirement home went much better than she expected. Her own cottage, new friends and a mystery to solve
April 18, 2023
Always a Sleuth by Liz Turner is the first book in the “A Maggie Belle Cozy Mystery” series. We open up the prologue to a few criminals about to launch their plan into action. Maggie, the main character of the book, is sitting at a bus stop when a nurse from a nursing home comes to collect her. As they travel through Blooming Hill, they stop for a quick bite to eat at a local pub and soon find themselves in the midst of a robbery. Sylvia is nursing home neighbour who is “worth quite a fortune”, according to her. However, soon enough we find out that she’s been robbed; hundreds of thousands of dollars have disappeared from her account. After the police decline to immediately open an investigation, the situation is left to Maggie to try and solve, with the help of her new found friends at the Buttercup Villa nursing home. It’s a ten chapter (plus prologue and epilogue), 96 page book, so it was pretty quick for me to get through it.
My first thought, when the robbery occurs is that Maggie keeps insisting for Mia (the nurse) to call the police, though Mia is too afraid at this moment (which is understandable because people can freeze out of fear in moments like that); but what’s stopping Maggie from doing it herself? She keeps insisting that Mia make the call, but surely Maggie could do it. Soon after, we find ourselves at the police station and Maggie explains that Billy, the young robber, has fallen on hard times and was robbing the place in order to get money for rent. It definitely feels like we’re meant to feel compassionate for him, and I do feel a twinge of pity. However, the thing I find myself needing to remember is that he’s still a criminal; he was literally caught while trying to rob a pub. Later on, we have more insistence that he’s a good kid, really, when the author notes about the hanging flower baskets he has put together for Maggie. But, in my mind, he still tried to rob a place. That’s the kind of thing that can give people some really awful mental health problems, such as PTSD. Like I can see that the author is trying to humanise him, but it feels like we’re just expected to forget that people could have been seriously hurt if things had turned out worse. Yeah, I know he needed the money… But is that worth people’s lives? The author puts more focus on how we’re meant to be nice and considerate to the criminal, and to simply not think about the victims.
It’s reasonably well written. There are good little snippets about the village that we can learn through conversation, and I feel like the author introduces a variety of characters reasonably well. There were a few of the investigation bits that I thought were decent, and a lot of it was quite logical. However, I didn’t like that Maggie was able to use Sarah’s help in order to pry into the private lives of the other residents; to check how rich they all are. I felt like that was a massive breach in privacy; especially considering patient files would likely contain all sorts of other information such as medical histories, etc. And yet Sarah just lets her look at all of it? It really makes me lose all my respect for Sarah.
I kind of like Sylvia; I like how kind she is to the stray cats that she feeds, neuters and returns to the streets. It’s a positive sign of character that she makes an attempt to improve their lives. Honestly, I don’t know why the author keeps implying negative things about Nurse Mia. Such as my remarks above about her being too afraid to call the police; I think it’s a reasonable reaction. And Nurse Sarah makes a rude remark about Mia being late to collect Maggie because she was probably doing her shopping; yet later it turns out the reason she has been late to pick up Maggie was because she was doing work at the Villa; so it’s not really her fault for her lateness. The author keeps on trying to imply that she’s a bad person for things she didn’t do wrong, such as being afraid during a robbery and being late because she was working, yet there are so many other characters that have negative qualities that Maggie praises. For example, Sarah lets Maggie illegally look into patient’s personal records, but the author doesn’t imply that she’s a bad person. It just feels really weird that the author is trying to insist that negative behaviour like that is a positive, and making out as if positive behaviour is a negative.
Overall, it was a mediocre book, in my opinion. I didn’t particularly like it. It was reasonably well written and I liked a lot of the style of writing. I liked a reasonable amount of the investigation, but the way the book ended is not something that I particularly enjoyed. I don’t think I would read anymore of the series.
My first thought, when the robbery occurs is that Maggie keeps insisting for Mia (the nurse) to call the police, though Mia is too afraid at this moment (which is understandable because people can freeze out of fear in moments like that); but what’s stopping Maggie from doing it herself? She keeps insisting that Mia make the call, but surely Maggie could do it. Soon after, we find ourselves at the police station and Maggie explains that Billy, the young robber, has fallen on hard times and was robbing the place in order to get money for rent. It definitely feels like we’re meant to feel compassionate for him, and I do feel a twinge of pity. However, the thing I find myself needing to remember is that he’s still a criminal; he was literally caught while trying to rob a pub. Later on, we have more insistence that he’s a good kid, really, when the author notes about the hanging flower baskets he has put together for Maggie. But, in my mind, he still tried to rob a place. That’s the kind of thing that can give people some really awful mental health problems, such as PTSD. Like I can see that the author is trying to humanise him, but it feels like we’re just expected to forget that people could have been seriously hurt if things had turned out worse. Yeah, I know he needed the money… But is that worth people’s lives? The author puts more focus on how we’re meant to be nice and considerate to the criminal, and to simply not think about the victims.
It’s reasonably well written. There are good little snippets about the village that we can learn through conversation, and I feel like the author introduces a variety of characters reasonably well. There were a few of the investigation bits that I thought were decent, and a lot of it was quite logical. However, I didn’t like that Maggie was able to use Sarah’s help in order to pry into the private lives of the other residents; to check how rich they all are. I felt like that was a massive breach in privacy; especially considering patient files would likely contain all sorts of other information such as medical histories, etc. And yet Sarah just lets her look at all of it? It really makes me lose all my respect for Sarah.
I kind of like Sylvia; I like how kind she is to the stray cats that she feeds, neuters and returns to the streets. It’s a positive sign of character that she makes an attempt to improve their lives. Honestly, I don’t know why the author keeps implying negative things about Nurse Mia. Such as my remarks above about her being too afraid to call the police; I think it’s a reasonable reaction. And Nurse Sarah makes a rude remark about Mia being late to collect Maggie because she was probably doing her shopping; yet later it turns out the reason she has been late to pick up Maggie was because she was doing work at the Villa; so it’s not really her fault for her lateness. The author keeps on trying to imply that she’s a bad person for things she didn’t do wrong, such as being afraid during a robbery and being late because she was working, yet there are so many other characters that have negative qualities that Maggie praises. For example, Sarah lets Maggie illegally look into patient’s personal records, but the author doesn’t imply that she’s a bad person. It just feels really weird that the author is trying to insist that negative behaviour like that is a positive, and making out as if positive behaviour is a negative.
Overall, it was a mediocre book, in my opinion. I didn’t particularly like it. It was reasonably well written and I liked a lot of the style of writing. I liked a reasonable amount of the investigation, but the way the book ended is not something that I particularly enjoyed. I don’t think I would read anymore of the series.
August 4, 2024
A Fine Read for Any Age!
4.5 stars for this delightful story about life as senior citizens. I bet my father-in-law would have loved Maggie as a neighbor. Someone who sticks their noses into someone else's business is annoying, but a clever neighbor who can put facts together and help solve crimes, well, that's mighty handy! And the cast that surrounds little Mighty Maggie is an interesting blend of characters as well.
It was a good plot with enough potential suspects to keep the reader guessing and clues were sprinkled about to help a reader wonder. The reveal was reasonable enough and entertainment and. There was so much good to say about the book that I had to change my rating a half star up to 5! Teens and adults looking for a shorter mystery with fun characters will enjoy Turner's cozy!
4.5 stars for this delightful story about life as senior citizens. I bet my father-in-law would have loved Maggie as a neighbor. Someone who sticks their noses into someone else's business is annoying, but a clever neighbor who can put facts together and help solve crimes, well, that's mighty handy! And the cast that surrounds little Mighty Maggie is an interesting blend of characters as well.
It was a good plot with enough potential suspects to keep the reader guessing and clues were sprinkled about to help a reader wonder. The reveal was reasonable enough and entertainment and. There was so much good to say about the book that I had to change my rating a half star up to 5! Teens and adults looking for a shorter mystery with fun characters will enjoy Turner's cozy!
August 4, 2024
A cozy mystery set in a retirement community
Maggie moves into the retirement community and as she settles in strange things begin happening. People are loosing things that then reappear with no explanation. It is a cute story but the ending is a little disappointing as it really does not resolve things.
Maggie moves into the retirement community and as she settles in strange things begin happening. People are loosing things that then reappear with no explanation. It is a cute story but the ending is a little disappointing as it really does not resolve things.
August 3, 2024
Excellent read for a new author.
Enjoyed this story from the beginning. Very entertaining. Had difficulty putting it down. Can't wait for the next installment. Will be reading it right away.
Enjoyed this story from the beginning. Very entertaining. Had difficulty putting it down. Can't wait for the next installment. Will be reading it right away.
May 28, 2022
Always a Sleuths A Maggie Belle Cozy Mystery Book1
A very good story about Maggie helping find a thief that is taking from the wealthy patients in a elderly community
A very good story about Maggie helping find a thief that is taking from the wealthy patients in a elderly community
May 29, 2022
!oved it
I enjoyed the quirky characters. The story was believeable and enjoyable. I hope there are more Maggie Belle adventures to come.
I enjoyed the quirky characters. The story was believeable and enjoyable. I hope there are more Maggie Belle adventures to come.
August 2, 2024
Excellent short read. A mystery with a happy ending. Highly recommend for anyone!
August 17, 2024
easy read, delightful story line
I enjoyed the easy reading after a stressful day
The characters were quirky and entertaining , all I’ve got to say is
I enjoyed the easy reading after a stressful day
The characters were quirky and entertaining , all I’ve got to say is
August 25, 2024
Fun
This was a very quick and fun read. What a bunch of wonderful characters. It will be a fun series.
This was a very quick and fun read. What a bunch of wonderful characters. It will be a fun series.
September 10, 2025
Excellent short read. Great characters and story line. Cannot wait to read the next book in this series.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews