Berried Alive by Chelsea Thomas

Going Toes Up in the Berries

In this installment of Apple Orchard Cozy series starts off with a mini mystery! Who is behind the Post-it caper at the Brown Cow? But things soon take an ominous turn. Local business owners are up in arms about the developer who has come to Pine Grove with plans to open up a Massive Mart. When he is found face-down, murdered, in a berry pie, Chelsea and Miss May are ready to step in to help local law enforcement figure out what’s going on.

Who is behind the developer’s death? Will Chelsea pursue the relationship with her favorite detective? What about Germany Turtle, son of the victims is of the previous crime that Chelsea and Miss May helped with?

This was a light, fun read. The author has set up a quirky female amateur sleuth team in Chelsea and Miss May. As often happens in cozy mysteries, there is a lot of humor here, and it is well done. In this book, I particularly enjoyed the little moments with Germany Turtle. I am a massive Jane Austen fan, and Germany Turtle reminded me in his interesting mix of pomposity and servility of Mr. Collins. I like him better than Mr. Collins, though; Germany just comes across as very sweet and perhaps not comfortable than people. His speeches were rather humorous.

I found one glaring error in the book. The author called the Marianas Trench the Mariana Trench. As I have several friends who are named Mariana, this stuck out like a sore thumb to me. But still, I quite enjoyed this quirky cozy.