Tag: Maia Chance

Bad Neighbors by Maia Chance

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Bad Neighbors (An Agnes & Effie Mystery #2)Bad Neighbors by Maia Chance

Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: An Agnes and Effie Mystery #2
Publication Date: 4/10/18

Welcome to the picturesque small town of Naneda in upstate New York for the foliage viewing season. The town is filled with funny, quirky and unique residents who will become some of your favorite book friends. The title characters are the pudgy, twenty-nine-year-old Agnes Blythe who has body image issues and her seventy-something, former super-model great-aunt Effie who has inherited a ramshackle, historic inn that she and Agnes are restoring. The supporting characters are also back and they are as much fun as ever! The book will give you belly-laughs and at the same time, there is an intense murder mystery to solve. It is an excellently written and fun read!

A leaf-viewing tour bus breaks down and pulls into the local garage for repairs. The occupants have to be put up in local lodging for the night – but the local inns are almost filled to capacity. They divide the members of the tour group out among the inns, but they still need more rooms. The only option is to get The Stagecoach Inn to take some of the group even though the Inn isn’t ready for occupancy yet. Boy – are those folks in for a surprise.

While the tour group is waiting at the garage for the various inns to pick them up, one of the group discovers a dead body. As Agnes arrives to pick them up, there are police cruisers everywhere with lights flashing – and – is that Otis they are putting into the back of the police car? Otis and Agnes are sorta/kinda dating and he absolutely cannot have murdered anyone!

Aggie and Effie decide they need to investigate to clear Otis’ name because the police detective seems to have fixated on Otis as the only suspect. The plot is complex, but Aggie and Effie’s investigation will keep you in stitches. I love that the tourists play such a major role in the investigation. There are lots of red herrings to keep us and our investigators guessing right up to the very end. The identity of the murderer will surprise you!

I highly recommend this book. It is funny and entertaining – just wait for their spa visit! If you want a book that will leave you refreshed and feeling good after you finish reading it, then this is the one for you!

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“I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”

Bad Housekeeping: An Agnes and Effie Mystery by Maia Chance

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, MysteryLeave a comment

Bad Housekeeping: An Agnes and Effie Mystery (An Agnes & Effie Mystery)Bad Housekeeping: An Agnes and Effie Mystery by Maia Chance

Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Agnes and Effie Mystery #1
Publication Date: June 13, 2017

This is the first book in the new Agnes and Effie Mystery series by Maia Chance. It was delightfully warm and witty and had a pretty good mystery to go with it. The series ‘stars’ are pudgy, twenty-eight-year-old Agnes Blythe and seventy-something, former super-model Great-Aunt Effie. Add in a former high school sweet heart and a girl-crazy cousin and you have quite a cast of characters!

Agnes is very insecure about her body image, mostly because of an incident in high school. She was never the svelte and supremely confident person her great-aunt Effie is and when someone posted a nasty sign about her weight on her locker at school, she skipped the last two weeks of high school. That insecurity stayed with her and even affected her choice of fiancé – who is a really stodgy, self-centered piece of work. So, when said fiancé dumps her, she flees to her father’s house. (Note: I picture Velma from Scooby-Doo.)

Great-Aunt Effie, who has just inherited a condemned old inn in their town, sweeps in and just engulfs Agnes. Effie is a former super-model, is very rich, and has had several husbands. She is a chain smoking force of nature!

The banter between the characters is funny as in:
“He was going to give us the little lady treatment,” Effie said.
“What?”
“You know, like John Wayne. Treating us like lobotomy patients because we haven’t got boy parts.”

The morning after Effie arrives in town and Agnes moves back to her dad’s house, they stumble upon the dead body of a nasty woman that both of them had a confrontation with the day before. They, of course, become the prime suspects and end up investigating the murder themselves. A few bodies and several close calls later, they have their murderer! However, getting there is filled with car chases, confrontations, people in strange liaisons, blackmail – you name it and it is there!

Then, there is Otis Hatch, Agnes’ high school crush. He’s still a first-class hunk and keeps showing up wherever Agnes happens to be. I think we’re going to see a full-fledged romance there and maybe see Agnes overcome some of her body image issues.

Of course, I’m thinking the ex-fiancé, Dr. Roger Hollins, will go forward with the series as well. Maybe just as a counterpoint to Otis. Not that there will be any competition between Roger and Otis – Roger will be more the comic relief.

So, we have a great set of characters set up for the following books in the series. I can’t wait to see what Agnes and Effie get into next!

“I requested and received this book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”

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