Snow Place for Murder by Diane Kelly [review]

Snow Place for Murder is the third book in Diane Kelly’s charming Mountain Lodge mystery series.

Title: Snow Place for Murder
Author: Diane Kelly
Series: Mountain Lodge Mysteries #3
First Published: October 24, 2023
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Genres: Mystery
Acquired: from the publisher via Netgalley

*** Thank you to the publisher, St. Martin’s Paperbacks, for providing me with an e-copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review. ***

International resort developer Nigel Goodwin has traveled from London, England to Misty Murphy’s little corner of North Carolina and bought out the Mountaintop Lodge for the week prior to Christmas to pitch an exclusive new resort concept to wealthy American investors.

But locals are at odds over the idea and have plans to protest the new resort. When a blizzard hits Beech Mountain, everything starts to get frosty.

In an attempt to regain a happier holiday atmosphere, handyman Rocky Crowder plows the lodge’s drive and smooths the snow pile into a makeshift sledding hill for the guests to enjoy. Misty’s two sons are “home” from college for the winter break and plan to spend most of their time snowboarding. While taking a few runs down Rocky’s sledding hill, they discover a funny-looking, nose-shaped rock. Only it’s not a rock. It’s the frozen nose of Nigel Goodwin, who’s found dead and buried under the mound of snow.

A well developed cast of characters

One of the things I really enjoy about this series is that Misty is well settled into her life. She’s recently divorced, but has a great relationship with her ex-husband and is currently enjoying a blossoming romance with Rocky, the Mountaintop Lodge’s handyman. Her sons get along with her and she gets along with the people in the small town she calls home, including police enforcement. It’s actually a nice change when the main character in a mystery series doesn’t actually have too much baggage or conflict in her own life because there’s more than enough drama provided by the constant parade of murders!

And while we don’t spend a lot of time on the supporting cast, we do get glimpses into their personal lives, and their relationship with Misty. They are almost background characters because they really just support the story, letting the action take centre stage.

That’s not to say that there aren’t more than enough suspects to focus on. With the inn full of wealthy investors, they all seem to have more than a few secrets to hide. Not to mention the angry locals who are opposing the new resort plans.

A well developed cast of characters

The pacing of the mystery is really well done and I found we spent a really good amount of time with each suspect, learning about their motives, watching how they behave, and then adding to the suspicion, or clearing them of the murder. There are lots of clues and red herrings and trying to solve this mystery was lots of fun and new motives were uncovered or suspects were given alibis.

Underneath the murder there is also the sub-plot that deals with turning a beautiful “local” secret into a tourist destination. This happens a lot and I can see both sides of the story – on one hand you want to share the beauty and have more people appreciate it (not to mention creating new jobs for the local economy) but on the other hand, too many tourists really can ruin a well-hidden paradise.

I really enjoyed this book – it has a Christmas feel to it because the story takes place around the holidays and there’s plenty of family interaction. I loved the cozy feel of it all (murder notwithstanding) and can’t wait for the next book in the series!

Quote from Snow Place for Murder