Varnished Without a Trace
This Christmas, Tallie Graver would like to take a break from running her cleaning business to be with her boyfriend, Max, and enjoy their first holiday together—alone. Instead, she’s stuck keeping her mother and grandmother from duking it out during the town’s annual Christmas Eve bingo game. As for the festive spirit, she’ll have to settle for her mean-spirited Aunt Ronda, whose mouth could use some soap.
The night only gets worse after Tallie discovers Ronda’s body. It seems someone cleaned her clock with a can of varnish. While all the evidence points to Ronda’s husband, Tallie doesn’t believe her beloved Uncle Hoagie could do such a dirty deed. Of course, his sudden disappearance doesn’t help his case. If Tallie hopes to clear his name, she’ll need to dig up some dirt to locate the real killer. Otherwise, someone else could get rubbed out.
Series: A Tallie Graver Mystery – Book #5
Author: Misty Simon
Genre: Cozy Mystery/Holiday
Publisher: Kensington Books
Page Count: 288
Rating: 
Varnished Without a Trace is an odd story. The main character is the daughter of a funeral-home director, but she doesn’t want to work in the family business. She prefers cleaning people’s homes over taking care of the dead. Tallie comes off as a bit immature. She is almost thirty but allows her mother, father, and grandmother to tell her how to act, live her life, even what food to eat. Understandably, she wants to keep the peace, especially during the Christmas holiday. Still, a thirty-year-old woman should be able to be herself, eat the food she likes, and not worry about her family getting upset if she refuses cranberry sauce with dinner. For me, this made it challenging to like Tallie too much.
The investigation into the murder of Tallie’s cousin is slightly confusing. The local detective wants her help, as does the fire chief, but neither seems to do their job without Tallie by their side. Even though it’s the Christmas holiday, and the murder of a family member has taken place, yet no one is overly upset or grieving. The victim’s husband is missing and could be the killer, and it doesn’t look like anyone cares except Tallie. It’s just odd that so many crazy things happen, and no one bats an eye.
My biggest complaint about this book is that it was extremely predictable, from the suspects to the motives; even the twists were easily anticipated. Unfortunately, this Christmas holiday story was so easy to predict that I knew what would happen pages before it did. The premise of a funeral director/house cleaner for a cozy is great but wasn’t as good as it could have been. I love odd stories with characters that enhance a series, and this was the only book in the series that I read, so I may not be seeing the entire picture, but I didn’t have any empathy for any of the characters. All of this said, there were some fun and humorous parts in Varnished Without a Trace. It had a fair amount of interest and was a quick read.
Other odd Christmas holiday cozies readers should check out include Jacqueline Frost’s fantastic tale in the “A Christmas Tree Farm Mystery”. or perhaps an older cozy, Dorothy Cannell’s series “An Ellie Haskell Mystery”.
About the Author:
Misty Simon always wanted to be a storyteller…preferably behind a Muppet; Animal was number one, followed closely by Sherlock Hemlock. Since that dream didn’t come true, she began writing stories to share her world with readers, one laugh at a time. She knows how to hula, was classically trained to sing opera, co-wrote her high school Alma Mater, and can’t touch raw wood. Never hand her a Dixie cup with that wooden spoon/paddle thing. It’s not pretty.
Touching people’s hearts and funny bones are two of her favorite things, and she hopes everyone at least snickers in the right places when reading her books. She lives with her husband, daughter, and two insane dogs in Central Pennsylvania, where she is hard at work on her next novel or three. She loves to hear from readers, so drop her a line.
Contact Misty: https://mistysimon.wordpress.com/give-me-a-holler/
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