Maddie and Suzanne get involved with a fourth murder investigation. These are two girls, who are immature for their age, seem to attract violent crime. In this case, a bossy woman is murdered in the middle of the day outside a busy coffee shop. No one seems to have seen anything or can think of a reason why someone would want to kill Vanessa. An ex-husband? A jealous woman? A cheated landscaper? Despite several warnings from Detective Edgewater to stay out of the investigation, Maddie and Suzanne manage to get involved to clear Suzanne’s name and end up solving the mystery with an unsolicited confession.
Also, another full moon occurs, meaning that Maddie gains another spell that she can use. Naturally, this month’s spell comes in handy while investigating Vanessa’s murder. But can Trixie, Maddie’s personable white Persian cat, also cast spells?
The Maddie Goodwell series has become guilty pleasure read. The characters are quite immature for twenty-something year old girls living on their own outside of Seattle and owning their own coffee truck business. Maddie spends most of the book wondering why her new boyfriend has not kissed her yet. Realistically, a young entrepreneur would either initiate the kiss herself or not even waste her time on juvenile things like this. But this is not reality, it is a cozy murder mystery that is being solved by high school-ish girls.
The author needs to find a more thorough method of editing as there are several omitted or incorrect words and quotation mark errors. Despite the grammatical oversight, Jinty James has well developed characters and scenes. I can clearly visualize Maddie brewing a cappuccino or coffee drink for her customers and Suzanne’s health balls sitting on a platter near the coffee truck window. I can smell the coffee beans being roasted and hear the machines humming and percolating in the background. I can hear the early morning joggers huffing and puffing, trying to catch their breath as they ask for bottled water. Even though it seems immature, I can feel the breathless anticipation as Maddie finally gets her kiss.
No matter how immature I think the girls act or how many grammatical errors come up, I cannot wait to see what mystery Maddie and Suzanne will solve next, with Trixie’s help of course.