Getaway with Murder is the first book in a new cozy mystery series from Diane Kelly, set in a lodge in the Blue Ridge Mountains in northwest North Carolina. From the start I knew this would be an interesting cozy with a pretty unique protagonist – a 50-year-old divorcee who has just purchased a mountain lodge to run as an inn.
Title: Getaway with Murder
Author: Diane Kelly
Series: Mountain Lodge Mystery #1
First Published: October 26, 2021
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genres: Mystery
Acquired: from the publisher via Netgalley
*** Thank you to the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, for providing me with an e-copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review. ***
As if hitting the half-century mark wasn’t enough, Misty Murphy celebrated her landmark birthday by amicably ending her marriage and investing her settlement in a dilapidated mountain lodge at the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. With the old inn teetering on both a bluff and bankruptcy, she must have lost her ever-loving mind.
Luckily, handyman Rocky Crowder has a knack for rehabbing virtual ruins and for doing it on a dime, and to Misty’s delight, the lodge is fully booked on opening night, every room filled with flexible folks who’d slipped into spandex and ascended the peak for a yoga retreat with plans to namastay for a full week. Misty and her guests are feeling zen—at least until the yoga instructor is found dead.
With a killer on the loose and the lodge’s reputation hanging in the balance, Misty must put her detective-skills to the test. Only one thing is as clear as a sunny mountain morning—she must solve the crime before the lodge ends up, once again, on the brink.
A unique protagonist
Putting twenty happy years of marriage behind her and after finalising the world’s most amicable divorce, Misty has left her old life behind to embarked on her next adventure – running a mountain lodge on Beech Mountain in northwest North Carolina, a place she’s been visiting since her childhood. She brings along her huge white cat, Yeti, to keep her company.
When things don’t go according to plan, Misty has to find a way to deal with everything, including repairs to the crumbling lodge and a murder during her opening weekend.
Luckily for Misty, she has a couple of new friends that are ready to pitch in and help her. First, there’s Patty, the owner of the local diner, the Greasy Griddle, which shares a parking lot with the lodge. When Misty and Patty strike up a friendship, Patty agrees to cater breakfast for the lodge, which helps both businesses out.
Then there’s handyman Rockford “Rocky” Crowder – a handsome repairman who agrees to become the lodge’s ‘resident’ handyman and brings his huge dog, Molasses, along with him. From the start, Rocky is obviously going to be a love interest for Misty and the sparks fly almost immediately.
I’ve been noticing a trend in cozy mysteries, with many more stories available featuring older sleuths and I’m all for it. It’s not hard to imagine someone who is in their 40s-50s, with ample life experience and knowledge, being a good sleuth. Misty is no exception. She has a really optimistic attitude and is willing to put everything on the line to finally get a chance to seeing her own dreams come true. I also really love the way her family is portrayed – her ex-husband and her still love each other, but have grown apart and with their two sons grown up, they’ve decided to travel their own paths.
A fun murder-mystery with a couple of quirks
To be honest, I was actually glad when the victim was killed. She was one of those characters that, as soon as she showed up on the page, it only took a few minutes of reading for me to say “Oh wow, she’s awful, I hope she dies!” (I know, I’m terrible). So it’s not a surprise when she IS the murder victim and there are plenty of suspects (she really was awful).
The pacing of the story was pretty even and I think there were enough false clues and suspects to keep me guessing for a bit. The resolution made a lot of sense and things were wrapped up really nicely, with a few loose ends (nothing vital) that make me ready for the next book in the series.
One small part that I’m not sure about yet is Yeti, the cat, gets her own “point of view” mini-chapters. When I read the first one I was anticipating that it would drop some clues, like maybe Yeti would see something that Misty doesn’t, but it would give the reader an extra hint, but that never happens. The Yet “chapters” didn’t seem to serve any purpose to the story, except to put in a cute “pet” element. They weren’t bad, but they did confuse me for a while since they didn’t add anything to the story that I could see. Hopefully the cat POVs add more to the mystery-solving in the next one.
All in all, I really like Misty as a character and I’m looking forward to seeing her friendships with Patty and Rocky grow. The mountain lodge seems to be a great backdrop, although I do hope not *too* many murders are set there because… that’s not really a great marketing tag.
Quote from Getaway with Murder
I didn’t think about it before but adding hints via Yeti’s POV would’ve been such a little thing to add but it would do so much for the readers experience, at least for me.
Have you considered picking up the second book? I am waiting on hold at my library for it but i’m excited to see what the author does with the second story, hopefully the murder happens on the road instead of right at the lodge cause like you said that wouldn’t be a good marketing tag lol.
I have the next book on my tablet, waiting for me to get to it! I’m SO behind on my reading/reviewing! LOL. Once you get to it, come back and let me know what you think! Also, maybe Yeti will start “talking” in the next book! 🙂
Back and just finished the second book last night.
There was definitely a few more hints with yeti but overall still an under-used character imo.
Overall I really enjoyed this story and not to give too much away, I really like the spin on the murder that the author did in this book, although I felt that the list of suspects that Misty gives was relatively weak in comparison to the first book. I felt like i figured out who did it about half way through the book. I felt like the police were a little unbelievable in the sense that they would do their due diligence and investigate the mystery as well as collaborate as much as they did in the story with a citizen (Misty) lol.
imo it was a 4/5 i really enjoyed it.
Hi Bry! I just finished the book this past weekend so I’m mulling it over before I post a full review. I love hearing your take on it! I agree that Yeti was better used in this one – there were more things that she saw this time that added to the mystery. I actually did enjoy how civil and cooperative the police were LOL. I know it’s unrealistic but I’ve also spent too many hours reading about really grumpy or rude police treating our amateur detectives like criminals (or worse, the female ones who act jealous). Unbelievable? Yes. Nice change of pace? Also yes. LOL. I’m a glad to hear you enjoyed it as well!