Customer Reviews

The Best Laid Plans

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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When her husband dumps her for one of his graduate students after many years of marriage, Jessie Schroeder returns to her hometown of Riverport, Missouri to lick her wounds and make a new life for herself. After months of writer's block , her muse returns as she begins to create the next tale in her children's series "Emily Says ...". She even hopes that Sheriff Gil Keller asks her out, a welcome change from fearing he would.

The era of good feelings does not last very long when Jessie's gardener Willy Bachmann is accused of killing Margaret Benson, wife of a conman and backer of a controversial industrial park development that hinges on a highway extension through the town. After joining AA and becoming a born again Christian, Jesse believes that Willy could not harm anyone. Not long afterward Willy is found dead; apparently he drowned in a flash flood.. The autopsy reveals he had a high alcohol content in his system. Jessie believes someone is getting away with two murders and used Willie as the most believable fall guy.

THE BEST LAID PLANS is an enjoyable amateur sleuth tale that gives readers an opportunity to see what it is like to live in a small Missouri town where everyone knows everyone. Some locals believe the heroine is plain rude because of her loyal obstinacy to her beliefs that she can read a person's inner traits; readers will consider her as a charming eccentric. Janet Majerus provides audience with a wonderful regional mystery.

Harriet Klausner

I have read a lot of mysteries and for a debut mystery novel this was quite engaging. The protagonist--Jessie Schroeder, who lives in the small town of Riverport--asked herself and others all of the questions surrounding mysterious events that I found myself asking; she did not leave me annoyed with her as a amature sleuth for not asking things that she should have asked. Jessie is real and her inquisitiveness was based upon an intelligent human being living in a small American town. All of the characters in this novel had substance and you came to know each of them well enough to formulate your own opinion about "who done it." I look forward to reading another exciting episode in Jessie Schroeder's life.

A well-written, deftly plotted story filled with interesting characters. Hope this is only the first in a series of Jessie Schroeder's adventures in Riverport!