Bad Neighbors

It’s tourist season in Naneda, New York. Agnes Blythe has settled back home helping her eccentric Great Aunt Effie restore the Stagecoach Inn. It seems nothing can shatter the cash registers until a mechanic is found bludgeoned to death with a wrench.

Leaping into action, Agnes and Aunt Effie are there when a tourist-laden motor coach breaks down outside of town. The Stagecoach Inn isn’t exactly ready for guests, but Agnes and Effie agree to take in a group of senior tourists while they wait for repairs. But Agnes finds herself pulled into a murder investigation when she learns her new boyfriend, gorgeous Otis Hatch, is the Naneda Police Department’s prime suspect.

With bodies falling faster than the foliage, Agnes and Effie must leaf through the more viable suspects and clear Otis’s name of murder before it’s too late.

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Series: An Agnes and Effie Mystery – Book 2
Author: Maia Chance
Genre: Cozy Mystery/B&B
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Rating:

Bad Neighbors is a wonderful trip through a small town with big-city problems, great food, and wonderful residents. It brings out the protective side of the reader and the adventurous side as well. This is the second book in the Agnes and Effie Mystery series.

Agnes is still coming to grips with her failed relationship but isn’t as heartbroken as she should be. A new romance with Otis hatch is making things much easier. But with her plans up in the air and an uncertain future, she is afraid to commit, not just to Otis but with her aunt and the B&B. Agnes is a hard worker with an almost insatiable curiosity that gets her in deep trouble when she least needs it.

Aunt Effie is everything anyone would love to have in a relative. She is charming, curious, filled with ideas, and has a very keen sense of how older women should dress, which doesn’t include sensible clothing or shoes.

All the characters in this book are memorable and easy to like, except for the killer, and that is exactly the way a good mystery should be. The victim(s) aren’t perfect, but they deserve justice, and Agnes is determined to put the right criminal behind bars. Unfortunately, her new boyfriend is the main suspect.

Readers will love Bad Neighbors and the writing style of Maia Chance. Characters and locations are described lovingly without too much information that so often bogs down a good book. The writing is smooth, with no awkward segues that go nowhere or leave the reader with more questions than answers. This book and series are highly recommended for anyone who loves great characters, a wonderful story-line, and human flaws.