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This is the first in a new series for Joyce & Jim Lavene. They also write the Peggy Lee Garden Mysteries. The story started out good, giving you info on the in's and out's of the Renaissance Village in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and you get to know a little about the heroine, Jessie Morton, who is an assistant professor and now studying for her Ph.D. She spends her summers doing apprentice work in the different shops at the faire and this summer she is learning basket weaving from Mary Shift, a Gullah basket weaver at Wicked Weaves. One tourist filled day, Queen Livy and her courtiers are passing in front of the shop and just about to enter Lolly's Lemonade Shoppe on the other side when she sees a body of a man in the alley and cries out, "We do believe this man is dead. Someone fetch our smelling salts." The dead man appears to be Mary's estranged husband, Joshua, who she hasn't seen in 20 years. He was strangled with Mary's signature weave. Before this all happened, a man named Abraham, from her old village has a heated argument with her and then leaves. Mary refuses to tell Jessie what it's about even though Jessie pries and pries. After the muder Mary falls under suspicion, but Jesse lies and says Mary has been with her all along. She wasn't. Other suspects include Ham, Mary's brother, who is the blacksmith, Jah, the son she thought died 20 years ago and several other shop owners. I had some problems with the writing. Jessie went from an educated woman into a moody, accuse all teen type! Her characteristics kept changing as the story rolled along. It is known by all in the Renaissance Village that each summer she took a different lover. This year it is Chase Manhattan, the baliff. One minute she is cooing at him and thinking she really might love this guy and the next she is the jealous woman stalking off when he receives any attention from other characters and a third....she goes hot and cold on him all within the same few pages. Another annoyance was that anytime anyone showed any interest in the case she would honestly think they were the killer.....so you had almost everyone in the village a suspect in her eyes and she would run to Chase and want him to arrest them. The only part I enjoyed was the Renaissance characters who sometimes took their parts a little too serious. Robin Hood had his name legally changed to Robin Hood and the monks who owned the bakery really thought they were a brotherhood. They all thought justice should be melded out as it was back in that time. You do learn a lot about that period and also how some of the shows are run so nobody gets hurt. As for Jessie, she needs to grow up. This was not a woman I saw as a teacher or even getting a Ph.D. I kept seeing her as a bratty teenager. The writers need to let her grow up and act her age. I gave it an average because there were several redeeming parts that made the story worth reading, but I doubt I would continue to buy this series.Read full review
I love that this cozy mystery take place at a Renaisance Fair. The main character just can't keep herself out of trouble and manages to keep extracting herself (sometimes with the help of her boyfriend). Nice cast of characters. You want to keep reading just to see what happens next.
