No Mallets Intended

Vintage Kitchen Mystery Series #4

By: Victoria Hamilton

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

The Queensville Heritage Society is restoring the once-grand Dumpe Manor. While Dumpe relatives and society members use the occasion to dust off old grudges, Jaymie Leighton prefers to adorn the kitchen with authentic Depression-era furnishings. A collection of vintage wooden mallets found in the house is a perfect addition to her display, but one also offers a late-night intruder the perfect weapon to knock Jaymie unconscious before escaping. Though the attack has everyone on edge, nothing is missing from the house. Perhaps it was merely a vagrant who thought the place was still abandoned. But when Dumpe Manor's resident historian is murdered with a mallet from the same collection, it's time for Jaymie to turn up the heat on the investigation before someone else becomes history.

©2014 Donna Lea Simpson (P)2015 Tantor

Love this series!

I love this character, and the way the stories are told. I hope there are many more to come!

Another superb vintage kitchen book!

I found this series by accident and I am now completely addicted. I'm not sure what I'll do when I finish – beg the author to write more?? The main character is someone I can identify with and each person is likable in their own way. Most of all, I am in love with the narrator! Emily Woo Zeller does an amazing narration - her voice is so easy to listen to, and she seems to capture the essence of each character so well. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes a good mystery without any gory stuff. Lighthearted yet suspenseful!

Meh

This isn't Hamilton's best work and I found myself hitting "repeat" a lot (in fact, I got an Audible award for it) because it was not holding my attention and my mind would wander. For the most part, there was a story there and I like the author. The storyline was just a bit dull and she used a lot of fluff to fill space ("What if?" questions, speculation, etc.).

Didn't see THAT coming...

I love this author, this series and the author's Merry Muffin Mystery series - which I blew through in record time and I don't normally read the same author consecutively.

Back to the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series: This is the fourth in the series and was anything but routine. The author had great twists I didn't see coming. Okay, I saw at least one of the twists but you'll need to figure our which one for yourself.

A great read with mostly-likable characters. The lead gets on my nerves from time-to-time but that's been true through the series. The support characters are fantastic - well defined with lovable quirky personalities.

So Many Suspects

The characters were very well fleshed out but not so much at one time so as to give away too much and spoil the mystery.