Customer Reviews

Mint Juleps, Mayhem, and Murder (Ellie Avery Mysteries)

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"Mint Juleps, Mayhem, and Murder", by Sara Rosett, is another of the Ellie Avery Mystery series. In this one, Ellie Avery and her husband, Air Force pilot Mitch get bad news at his family reunion. His boss, Col. Pershall, was just murdered and cousin Dan was shot at. With an anti-war group setting off dry ice bombs, and husband Mitch a target for the killer, Ellie is once again drawn into solving the case.

Rosett writes with a light touch that makes this one of those very enjoyable murder mysteries. Her main character, Ellie, is a mother, wife and professional organizer and has a side business called "Everything in its Place". She is pretty much a normal officer's wife, being involved in the officer's wife club and children activities and around Robins AFB in Georgia.

Building a business, being a stay-at-home mom for Livvy, age 4 and Nathan, age 2, and dealing with the stress of being a military wife keeps this book moving along. Add to this a murder mystery, and this is the 30 something's version of Murder, She Wrote. As a bonus, throughout the book are tips for organizing from "Everything in its Place". All this makes for a cute, fast , and enjoyable read.

At Taylor Air Force Base in North Dawkins, Georgia, everyone is stunned by the strangulation murder of popular Squadron Commander Colonel Lewis Pershall who was at an off base golf course at the time he was killed. His stunned wife Denise realizes the Sheriff's department investigating her spouse' s homicide believe her to be the prime suspect. She asks Ellie Avery, wife of a member of her late husband's squadron, to investigate because she knows Ellie has a reputation as a successful amateur sleuth (see Magnolias, Moonlight, and Murder).

Ellie makes inquires that lead her to learn someone is threatening her husband Mitch and their cousin although Mitch hid it from her; that culprit sent them strange squadron coins. Also an air force widow sent hostile menacing letters to the victim. As accidents seem to follow Mitch, Ellie looks closely at other officers who envied and loathed Pershall.

The fifth Ellie Avery military homeland amateur sleuth tale is a great whodunit that deftly balances an intelligent strong investigation, increasingly dangerous incidents targeting Mitch, and life on the CONUS air force base. The cast is superb as the Avery family reunion showcases dependents and other civilians on a base while the inquiry is top rate as Avery uncovers three suspects with two having easy access. Fans will appreciate drinking mint juleps alongside of Ellie while seeking who is causing mayhem and murder.

Harriet Klausner

I enjoyed this book more than the other one I read by the same author. This one really held my attention and had the good ole mystery involved. Thanks.

Ellie Avery keeps getting moved around. Her husband's in the Air Force, and wither he goeth, she goeth too. Throughout the series she has one, then two,and maybe then a third baby, all in different places. She sets her books in interesting settings, like Washington, DC, or beautiful settings like Georgia or Washington State. She always has a couple of longtime friends who've been transferred at the same time she's been trasferred. She's a professional organizer, but with each move, it gets a little tougher to strike up the band once again. But the dangdest things happen to this perfectly normal woman: People keep getting murdered around her. Once? I could understand once. But at least once in every book, someone keels over from some strange, rare, or just extremely hateful experience, and Ellie, with wicked powers of observation and insatiable curiosity, manages to get to the bottom of the mystery just about the time you get to the end of the book. Works out quite nicely that way. I tried to read the books in order, but found 'em in the library and read 'em as I got 'em. It wasn't too bad -- I was able to keep things straight. Ellie has a very nice husband who is also a good dad and spends precisely NO time demeaning Ellie for not keeping her nose out of everyone's business, etc., etc. There were no parts of Ellie's life that made me feel inadequate. She's not much of a housekeeper, and dinner frequently shows up in a white paper bag with grease stains on it. Actually made me feel rather superior, thank you very much. I think we all have a need to be superior at least once in a while. One of her addictions is to Hershey Kisses. I don't understand how the woman can reach in her bag and JUST EAT ONE, but she does. It's probably the one part of her character that just simply can't be true to life. I certainly don't believe it!

Anyway, I recommend these books and believe you will enjoy them. I fully intend to reread them again before long. They're relaxing, quick to read, and I get somewhat wrapped up with the characters who weave their way through the books.

Here's what I liked about this book: the interesting setting on an Air Force base (strange how the military life is so uncommon in books), some of the characters and some of the observations of their behavior, and the pretty decently plotted mystery. The book was a fun summer read, and the tidbits of info about Air Force life were new to me. The heroine is likeable and the story, although of course not totally realistic, is complex and holds some surprises for the reader. The everyday tasks of the characters are cleverly woven into the plot: knitting, leaf-blowers, mail deliveries, t-shirts, and jogging routines feature as some of the clues to the murder.

However I wasn't that crazy about the rather ho-hum writing style: some phrases were repeated too often (the heroine and her husband are forever giving each other "quick kisses"), and the descriptions of events were often too plain to impart much feeling about them. The organizing hints appended at the end of certain chapters aren't in any way related to the story, and don't add much. They seem randomly included. (The heroine is a professional organizer, but a reader who's new to the series doesn't learn that for a few chapters.) Too much time is spent on unimportant characters (even the author can't keep the name of Mitch's aunt straight), and irrelevant details, such as the brand names of cars and drinks. Small events are carefully described ("I paused at the bumper of the minivan to fish my keys out of my purse"), often unnecessarily.

I also thought the treatment of an anti-war group in the story was oddly shallow: surely military personnel and spouses think a bit harder about the meaning of their jobs than the characters in the book, who don't seem to devote any thought to the situation in the Middle East. The heroine's total focus is on her family and neighbors, which got a little claustrophobic for me. Peace groups are portrayed as misguided and unimportant, when they're not committing evil acts like disrupting a funeral service. (Interestingly, the only real-life group known for protesting at military funerals is an anti-homosexual group, not a peace group. Whether the author intended to make this connection is unclear.) I think the author attempted to keep politics out of what is meant to be an entertainment, and mostly succeeded, but when the setting is a military base, it seemed strange for the characters to act almost as if there are no wars going on. Perhaps that is what they do, but I would like to see the question addressed. Maybe another book in the series does a better job covering it.

This book appears to be part of a growing genre of "domestic murder mysteries," in which the focus is on everyday moms. The ones I've read seem mostly written as entertainments, but it would be interesting to see if any of them make a bigger contribution to literature.