14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Welcome to mystery's first laundromat-owning sleuth!!, September 28, 2003
This review is from: Death of a Domestic Diva: A Toadfern Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)
While waiting for Lemony Snicket's newest, I picked this up to read after coming upon it accidentally - I like to try "first in series" mysteries if I can, so that if I like them I can keep up from the beginning.
Josie Toadfern lives in maybe the most rural Ohio town I've ever read about, Paradise. The book opens with several of Paradise's most prominent citizens scared stiff that Paradise has been left off the newest edition of the Ohio state map! The city's already low tourist-based cash crop is in peril, but how to get the city (literally) back on the map? Easy, says Josie, owner of Toadfern's Laundromat ("always a leap ahead of dirt!") and the best stain-removal expert in the midwest -- she'll just write to Tyra Grimes, who is a super-famous homemaking/decorating expert (a la Martha Stewart) with her own show, and tell Tyra she (Josie) should be on "The Tyra Grimes Home Show" to share her stain-fighting expertise with the world.
This idea comes with mostly-enthusiastic backing from other Paradisites -- with one of the most adamant exceptions being the local funeral parlor owner, Lewis Rothchild, who warns Josie that, if she gets Tyra to come to Paradise, "blood will flow." Josie receives a few other nay-sayers' advice, but writes the letter anyway ...
Sure enough, Tyra shows up in Paradise . . . and within 48 hours Josie stumbles upon a couple of bodies lying in a mushroom patch -- one unconscious, the other with a bullet hole in the chest.
This first novel started off slow for me, but actually turned into a really decent mystery. The solution is more complicated than at first you would assume, and for such a small town there are plenty of suspects around to make you try and figure out whodunnit. Josie turns into a very likeable heroine, and I will read more in the series . . . though there are a couple of problems.
One, Short is a good writer, the book got better and better as it went along, but all the foreshadowing she does got a little on my nerves (the "If I had known then what I know now"-type of letting the reader know something big is going to happen gets old fast); also, am a bit concerned with how this small town full of eccentrics might not grow stale in future installments; I mean, how many murders can this little place go through, if the town is so small there's only one laundromat, one funeral parlor, etc?
But those are nit-picky criticisms, in a way. Short, a stain expert herself, shares some of those insights in the book, and with a likeable cast of characters, vivid writing, and the (toward the end, anyway) cliffhanger chapter endings, I do really look forward to Josie's next adventure...
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
So-So Start, November 21, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Death of a Domestic Diva: A Toadfern Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)
The book picked up steam as it went along, however, the ending was so convoluted with so many things happening and so many twists and turns that it was a bit hard to digest it all.
I realize the author was going for humor in the first installment of what seems like a series, but she took it just a bit too far. Lime Jell-O mold on the head might be somewhat amusing, but added to a high-speed bookmobile chase, head-shaving and an old teacher in pink leather, it started to cross the line into silly and even ridiculous.
The most annoying thing was the constant use of "my laundromat." We know it's hers...we didn't need to be reminded of it in every sentence.
I'll read the next installment, but there's definitely much room for improvement as the series moves along. I just wonder how far it can move with such a limited character/setting base.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Introducing Sleuth Stain Expert Josie Toadfern, August 2, 2004
This review is from: Death of a Domestic Diva: A Toadfern Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)
Josie Toadfern owns the town Laundromat. She is also a stain expert. Their town, Paradise, Ohio, has always been on the map. But, when the new map arrives, it is no longer there. To try to get them back on the map, Josie writes a letter to Tyra Grimes asking to be on her TV show. Josie is quite surprised when Tyra shows up in town to tape a segment without even answering her letter.
Then Josie starts hearing rumors about Tyra that sound immoral if not illegal. She begins to do some research. Her cousin Billy appears to be getting in deep with Tyra's associates. As Josie tries to uncover the truth, the funeral director is town is murdered. Elroy is arrested. Josie can't believe the Elroy killed him. She keeps digging trying to find the truth.
She ends up getting herself in deeper and deeper but can't seem to figure out how all the pieces fit together.
This was the first book I've read in this series. It is an easy read, and I will continue to read others in this series. I must say that they won't be books that I'd rush out to get. I enjoyed this book, but found myself having trouble getting through it quickly. I can't put my finger on why. Josie is a likeable character. The other townspeople are all good characters. I think the writing is good. It is definitely a cozy mystery. I just felt that at times I got bogged down in some of the superfluous information.
I recommend this book.
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