Happy Rockers Help Solve Crime (I Only Read Murder, 2023)

Ferguson, Ian and Will. I Only Read Murder. (2023) Miranda Abbott, aka Pastor Fran of TV crime series fame, a wise fool of an actor who’s past her prime and bankability, rides to Happy Rock, Washington, on a bus (!) when summoned by her (soon-to-be ex-) husband. He operates a bookshop whose name supplies the title for the novel. Miranda becomes entangled in an amateur play productions, and when the lead dies after ingesting real poison, she must use what she has learned from her role as amateur sleuth to untangle the murderous knot. Which she does, and she gets her husband back, too (you didn’t think it would end otherwise, did you?)

A mildly amusing entertainment, which I think would work better edited down to about two-thirds of its length. Or maybe not. Happy Rock is a bucolic place, where people live at half-speed, so the laid-back pace of the story matches the ambience. And the Happy Rockers are much wiser and more charitable than Miranda realises.

The Fergusons are Canadian, so why have they set this novel in the USA? Are they angling for a TV series? What a hook: A TV series featuring an amateur sleuth who acted in a TV series.... Maybe they should angle for salmon instead. The fishing is good on the Tillamook river, they say.

Recommended for any mystery fan. **½