Murder Presents a Wee Problem
Scotland has popped up in a couple of cozies I’ve read in the past few months. In one of them, the main characters took a trip to Scotland. In this case, a Scottish festival is coming to the town of Silver Hollow, Michigan, and it makes a fun back drop for Bear a Wee Grudge.
If you are a first-time visitor to Silver Hollow, you will want to visit the Silver Bear Shop, as run by Sasha Silverman and her family. Unfortunately, Sasha has found herself part of several murder investigations over the last year, so you might want to plan your visit around the latest mayhem.
Silver Hollow is planning a Highland Fling weekend, and Sasha and her family are right in the middle of it. Naturally, their factory is making special bears wearing kilts to sell in a booth, but some of her friends and family are also going to enter the sporting events planned for the weekend. That includes her father, who is hoping to win the ax throwing event – a skill Sasha didn’t even know he had.
Unfortunately, that skill comes back to bite him when the body of Teddy Hartman is found with an ax buried in his back. Teddy had a well-known feud with the Silverman family, including a very public fight the day before his death. The police are quick to arrest Sasha’s dad. Can Sasha prove he didn’t do it?
As someone who has read the earlier books in the series, I’m actually surprised that Teddy lived as long as he did. He’s the kind of character you just know is going to die sooner or later because of his negative connections to Sasha. It was nice to see this thread finally come to the forefront of the series.
The story starts well, with plenty to draw us into the book. Unfortunately, the pacing lagged as we drew closer to the climax, with other things slowing things down a bit. This isn’t new to the books in the series, so fans will know to expect it. The climax does wrap things up nicely and provide us with the closer we need on the clues and red herrings.
Sasha and her family and core friends are delightful as always. I do enjoy spending time with them. The suspects are also strong. Unfortunately, my usual issue with the extended supporting cast comes into play again. There are so many, and their relationships are so intertwined it’s hard to keep everyone straight at times. Fortunately, these characters have very few scenes so this is a minor issue.
While a Scottish themed teddy bear book might not have been something I ever expected to read, Bear a Wee Grudge was fun. Fans of the series will be happy with this latest offering.
Cuddle up with the rest of the Shamelessly Adorable Teddy Bear Mysteries.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
I suspect I will be dead before I read all on my TBR mountain, however, I added this one anyway! 😉🤣🤗💖
ReplyDelete