Customer Reviews

Buried By Breakfast (Hemlock Falls Mysteries)

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March is normally quiet time for the manager and co-owner of the Inn at Hemlock Falls Sarah "Quill" Quilliam and for her sister co-owner and Chef Meg. However, this year the Inn hosts a sequestered jury working the case of Rocor vs. Meecham. Six jurors, the flamboyant Judge Moody, his bodyguard, and the court liaison are the only guests at the Inn, but this entourage keeps the siblings hopping trying to satisfy their outrageous demands. Meanwhile the town is coping with Corliss Hooker who is going to ridiculous lengths to stop Ferris Rodman, owner of Rocor Construction, from relocating a Civil War Cemetery so that he can build a golf course at its present site.

Soon after Corliss asks to speak with the Judge, Moody is found murdered; Quill is eager to find out who killed him. She hopes it is Ferris Rodman, who is supposedly planning to build an inn to rival that of the sisters. Quill convinces businesswoman Marge Schmidt to break into Rodman's trailer hoping to find dirt on him, but they get caught. Rodman agrees to not press charges and admits he plans to build an inn by the proposed golf course. The next day Marge asks Quill to help her find her ex husband Buddy who was supposed to meet them at the inn, but when they do he has been decapitated. Quill thinks the murders are connected, but struggles to find the missing link.

A "Hemlock Falls" mystery is always a great reading experience and BURIED BY BREAKFAST is no exception. Claudia Bishop writes an enthralling amateur sleuth mystery with so many suspects mostly guests that readers will not guess who the perpetrator is. The siblings and Marge remain solid protagonists in this highly recommended novel and series.

Harriet Klausner

It's the slow season at the Inn of Hemlock Falls. So, Meg and Quill are happy to have the sequestered jury. That is until they get all the requirements for having them stay there. There are only six jurors, the judge, his bodyguard, and the court liaison, but they keep everyone hopping with their demands.

Corliss Hooker is the head of protestors called "Friends of the Dead" They are trying to stop Ferris Rodman, owner of Roncor Construction, from relocating the Civil War cemetery to build a golf course. Then Corliss is found murdered in the cemetery. He is clutching a piece of paper that brings Quill into the investigation.

Quill starts hearing rumors of a large hotel being built in town. She and Marge end up doing some late night investigation to find out more. Plus Marge's ex-husband Boomer is in town. No one even knew she was married before. One morning Marge asks Quill to help her find Boomer as he didn't show up for their meeting. He is apparently dependable to be where he says he will be. Unfortunately they find he's had an "accident" and has been decapitated.

Quill begins to wonder if the two murders are related. She begins digging to try to find the link. She ends up putting herself in danger before unmasking the killer.

I love this series. Meg and Quill are so likeable. I would love to be able to stay at the Inn and get to know everyone in town. It sounds like the type of place you would love to visit, except for all the murders.

Not only are the setting and characters wonderful, the plot and pacing are great too. There are always plenty of suspects so that it is difficult to figure out who the killer is before the author uncovers it through the story. I highly recommend this book.

This is my first book by this author, and although I enjoyed the cozy part of this mystery, I just couldn't get into the story. It took way too long for the pace to pick up (like the last 50 pages?) and the rest of the time I had trouble getting into the book.

The "detective" in this series is a woman ("Quill"), an artist who runs an upscale inn in the Ithaca, NY area with the help of her gourmet chef sister Meg. Quill has a reputation for solving mysteries.

This book begins with a group (a generous word considering how small the group is) picketing to stop a developer from moving a Civil War era cemetary. At the same time, there's a big trial about to begin and for not very credible reasons, the judge decides to sequester the jury -- and Quill is talked into giving them rooms at a low rate because it's off season. Suddenly, the inn is filled with people involved with the trial not to mention various townspeople dropping by, including a strong-willed local woman who is set on getting a volunteer police department going. Eventually there's a murder, and then another, and Quill is trying to find the killer because she has little confidence that the local police will be able to (she believes they need her help and are subtly asking for it).

This book ranks low on credibility (the coincidences are truly amazing) and pacing, and high on coziness. If you buy the coincidences, the plotting makes sense. I was not entirely surprised at the perpetrator, but then I read a whole lot of mysteries. I really don't think I'll read more in this series, however -- just not my cup of tea, I like them with a faster pace. If you like cozies, however, you may very well love this series.

Since this is the twelfth or thirteenth book in the series, one would expect that the author has gotten the formula down pat. And, indeed, the first 170 or so pages follow the normal format. The story is based in Hemlock Fall in upstate NY where Sarah (known as Quill) is an artist who fled the hectic scene of Manhattan to operate an inn. Helping her is her sister Meg who is a well known chef - and termpremental to boot. This book takes place in March when the inn business is very slow, so it is no surprise that Quill rents out the whole inn at a low rate to a local jury that needs to be sequestered in a trial run by a famous and publicity seeking judge.

As is usual, we learn a little bit more about the two sisters' love lives; the town people make appearance; the Chamber of Commerce is involved in creating excitement, and all the normal events in the life of a small town play out. However, there are some new things going on as well. For instance, the local tax assessor is revealed as a very obnoxious female who ends up creating a vigilante police force; the other food purveyor in town turns out to have married 25 years before and her ex-husband is a famous celebrity who is expected to serve on the jury; etc.

Where this book veers from the tried and ture - and fails miserably in my opinion - is in the plot line of the main murder mystery. We start off reasonably well with a person who is leading a crusade against the relocation of a cemetery being found with his head bashed in. There is a semi-sleazy developer involved who is supposedly moving the cemetery to put in a golf course, but is quickly found to have other plans and so the suspicions of the crime fighting Quill are quickly aroused.

I will be making very specific references in the following paragraphs, so if you have not read the book yet, please stop here. If you do not care to find out what is wrong with this book - stop here.

Ok. you've been warned!

The whole plot is derived from a crime that happened twenty five years before. While the initial murder in the story makes sense - the cemetery fanatic figures out something is wrong - the rest of the crimes do not make sense. Bouncer Muldoon has not been in Hemlock Falls in 25 years to see Marge. He lives in California yet is called to serve on a jury in Hemlock Falls on a civil matter? Not only that, but the true murderer finds out he is coming so she manages to arrange for a European hit woman to come to town to kill him. This just so happens when Quill and Meg's long-lost cousin is coming for the very first time to Hemlock Falls so the hit woman can take her place.

And if you thought that was stretching it, how about when the murderer goes on and kills her son in law the judge? Wasn't the point of the murder 25 years ago as well as the killing of Bouncer Muldoon and of Corliss Hooker intended to make sure that what happened before stayed buried? But no! The murderer goes ahead and kills the person she is trying to protect! Oh, and to top it off, she then goes off and kills herself! What rubbish, what poppycock!

Overall I like Claudia Bishop's stories but this one is one of the worst I have ever read. I like the series and will read any future books, but if they continue in this vein (and, indeed, the storyline involving the shady developer is bound to be ongoing) I will drop the series from my favorites list.

You have been warned.