Ruth MooseReseñas

This is the second book in the Dixie Dew Mystery Series but the first one I have read. I recommend that you read this series in order as I was hampered somewhat by not knowing what had happened in the past.

In a little town known as Littleboro, North Carolina is a quirky homeless lady by the name of Crazy Reba. Everyone in town knows her well and puts up with her antics. They seem to love her and they all look out for her. In this book she wants to be a June bride and apparently she is marrying God, that is until Beth McKenzie, the owner of the Dixie Dew Bed and Breakfast gets a frantic call from her. When Beth meets up with Reba at a roadside picnic area, she finds a mysterious man who appears to be dead or dying. She calls 911 and when Ossie, the sheriff who does not want to work shows up, he takes Reba back to town and puts her in a jail cell. Beth decides she needs to help Reba by clearing her name. The only way to do that is to find out what really happened.

While all this is going on, the mayor has planned the First Annual Green Bean Festival. Beth is busy catering a lunch and Trashion Show for the mayor to gear up for the festival, as well as business at the B&B is picking up with the guest judges staying there as well as a handsome stranger from LA. AS she tries to juggle all that, she is also planning a wedding in the backyard, making the cake, dealing with her boyfriend and trying to investigate the crime. It gets pretty crazy when the wife of a missing man shows up in town and thinks Beth was having an affair with her husband. Throw in a Presbyterian Pastor who keeps showing up everywhere and her neighbour who turns out to be a hoarder and you will be laughing as you read this book.

The characters of Crazy Reba and Beth were very well developed and you couldn't help but root for them and worry at the same time. The other characters in the book were strong supporting members of the story. I am looking forward to reading more about the inhabitants of Littleboro North Carolina. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley.

Beth McKenzie is busy turning an old Southern mansion into a B&B called the Dixie Dew. But multiple murders and an attempted attack are thwarting her plans.

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Wedding Bell Blues by Ruth Moose is the second book in A Dixie Dew Mystery series. Beth McKenzie own the Dixie Dew Bed and Breakfast in Littleboro, North Carolina (a unique town). She receives a phone call from Crazy Rena (not sure where she obtained a cell phone) asking for assistance and Beth hops in her “Lady Bug” (her car) to go assist her. Beth arrives to find Rena at a picnic table with a man laying atop it. The man is injured. Beth immediately calls 911 and gives CPR (though she would rather not after seeing the guys mouth). Sheriff Ossie DelGardo (who is getting married soon) quickly arrives in his white cowboy hat and showy white snakeskin boots (he looks ridiculous). Rena keeps rambling that she “killed him” so he carts her off to jail. That is when Beth notices a truck nearby that states Goods on Delivery (GOD) and Beth realizes that maybe Rena is not as crazy as they all think. Rena has been telling everyone in town that she is having a June wedding and that the groom is God (the ladies in town helped her put together a dress, veil, and bows for her flip flops). Maybe she meant the Goods on Delivery guy. Beth decides to look into the matter, but things get dicey after she receives a threatening phone call (also called her a hussy). The town is having its Green Bean Festival. There is a fair, food judging (of items made with green beans), and the crowning of the Green Bean Queen (I am not kidding). The judges are staying at the Dixie Dew B&B. After the green bean food judging, Debbie Booth (one of the judges) turns up dead. Are the two events related (the Goods on Delivery guy and the death of Debbie booth)? Join Beth and friends in Wedding Bell Blues to find out what happens.

I found Wedding Bell Blues to be over-the-top ridiculous (I am being truthful). I like some humor, but this was one nutty thing after another. Rena breaks out of jail and then moves into someone’s home while they are in the hospital (they find her in the person’s bed eating cake and making a mess). She breaks into people’s homes and steals items (like the cell phone, cake, clothes). Tell me in what town this would be allowed to occur? Beth runs around like a loon asking questions and badgering people. It is a good thing that she has Ida Plum to run the inn or Beth would soon be out of business. The mystery was easy to figure out. The novel is a quick and easy read. I give Wedding Bell Blues 3 out of 5 stars (it was okay, just not for me). There are frequent mentions of Mama Alice (about once a chapter) and “Lady Bug”. The majority of the book is devoted to silly antics than the mystery (missing rabbit, green bean festival, the mayor’s turtle). Personally, I think the whole town should be locked up. Now many people will find the book entertaining, but it is just not for me. Wedding Bell Blues is the second book in the series, but it can be read alone (easily).

I received a complimentary copy of Wedding Bell Blues from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The comments and opinions expressed are strictly my own.

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. This was my first book by Ruth Moose but it will not be my last. I wish I had read the book before this in the Dixie Dew mystery series but I did pretty good at figuring out most of the local characters. This had a lot of twists and turns. I really liked Beth McKenzie and Scott. I love the small town setting of Littleboro, N.C. I could not figure out who did what and I really like that. I received a copy of this book from Minotaur Books for a fair and honest opinion.

Set in Littleboro, North Carolina, this #2 of the Dixie Dew Mysteries definitely begs a number three. The book took me a while to get truly interested, but then I was so in need of answers I carried my Kindle even to the supper(not dinner) table.

With characters like Crazy Reba, an older cognitively challenged lady who thinks not only is she getting married to God, but then she killed his better man, you know you're in for shenanigans. Add to that a lot of other quirky characters, like the mayor, Calista Moss (whose name rang spoofing bells for me);a sheriff that is transported from Yankee land; and a mysterious hunk who returns whose purpose in Littleboro is increasingly vague.

You know the story should be worthwhile when the high-falooting mayor holds a "trashion show," one of the highlights of the town's first annual Green Bean Festival. In case you need any appetizers (for the mystery)besides the cheesy ones Beth conjures up, you may want to know the townspeople are called "Littleborians" and the town's most accurate gossip comes from a rag called "The Mess." Laughter is good for the soul.

The novel ends, as any good serial does, with some unfinished business in the reader's mind. Gotta come back for more helpings of this spoof-filled Southern tale with lessons about social justice.

I will leave you with one thing I especially didn't like, and one I did. Cozies are by definition, clean of language, but this one pushed the edge. What I found unique and loved? This B &B owner shirked her duties to sleuth, as many cozy protagonists do. However, her second in command, Ida Plum, feels free to let Beth know that she is leaving extra work for others to perform. Yet Ida loves Beth anyhow. Nice personality mix, it fits, and differs because most cozies don't seem to care that the business owner ignores his/her job. Big kudos on that point,Ruth Moose!!

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

When Beth McKenzie returns to her hometown after her grandmother, Mama Alice falls and subsequently passes away, she seems ready to makeover her life. Left with Mama Alice's home, catering accessories and new right hand, Ida Plum, Beth strives to liven up the house and open a B&B called the Dixie Dew. Beth is horrified when one of the first visitors is found dead. Lavinia Lovingood was in her eighties, and not until the autopsy is foul play suspected, bringing a darkness to Littleboro. The town is populated with great secondary characters, some more quirky than others. In fact, some of that quirkiness almost serves as red herrings as we try to follow Beth's footsteps in discovering what happened to both victims. I picked this up because Moose won a Malice Domestic award for best First Traditional Mystery. I wasn't disappointed and would hope the win will enable Moose to return to Littleboro and the Dixie Dew in another book.½

Doing It at the Dixie Dew is filled with genuine Southern charm without a y'all in sight. Littleboro, North Carolina, abounds with eccentric characters, and author Ruth Moose certainly knows how to pepper her gumbo with them. The memory of Beth's grandmother, Margaret Alice McKenzie, lives on in the house this young woman is turning into a business. Beth has Mama Alice's recipes from her catering business and wants to turn one of the porches into a tea room. She even has the help of Ida Plum Duckett, who once worked alongside Mama Alice and is now Beth's "good right arm." And when you have an old house that needs some tender loving care, you need a handsome jack-of-all-trades like Scott Smith. Trust me, with his carpentry skills, his looks, and his caring personality, he's just the sort of guy to make Beth's heart beat a little faster.

But those are the normal characters. The truly eccentric ones are the woman next-door who's very attached to her large white rabbit named Robert Redford, the town's music teacher and church organist who always wears a hat and gloves, and Crazy Reba who Dumpster dives, lives in a tree, and takes baths whenever someone forgets to lock their doors when they run out to the grocery store. The only character I didn't care for is the town cop, Ossie Delbardo, who's clearly out of his depth with a murder investigation but insists that he knows Beth is the killer. I know this type of policeman exists, but I really don't care to have them populate the books I read.

The two things I most enjoyed about Doing It at the Dixie Dew are how the author created a hometown atmosphere that immediately made me feel welcome and populated it with small town characters that I recognized from my own childhood living in a village. The second enjoyment for me was how she used her characters. Taken at a glance, they may seem superficial, but keep reading. They're not. They have secrets they want to keep, and I think some of these characters are going to wind up shocking many readers just as badly as they shocked Beth McKenzie.

Doing It at the Dixie Dew should appeal to readers of Sarah Graves' Home Repair Is Homicide series as well as Mary Daheim's Bed-and-Breakfast series. Ruth Moose's book won the Malice Domestic Competition for Best First Traditional Mystery, and I can see why. I enjoyed it so much that I'm hoping to see Beth McKenzie and her friends again-- as well as wanting to keep an eye on the progress of transforming the Dixie Dew.½