Book Review: Murder in the Mountains by Various Authors (Destination Murders Collection #2)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Nine fun stories with murderous mountain trips

Cons: A couple stories short changed the mystery

The Bottom Line:

Deadly mountain trips

Vacations filled with danger

Nine fun short stories

High Altitude Homicide

It seems like more and more, I am hearing that we need to get outside more, experience nature.  Go to the mountains, for example.  It will be good for us.  Clearly, the people saying that haven’t read Murder in the Mountains, which clearly shows just how deadly time in the mountains can be.

This book is a short story anthology with nine short stories all featuring murder and mayhem on what are supposed to be relaxing vacations in the mountains.  There are two true standalone mysteries in this collection.  Others feature characters from the authors’ cozy mystery series or characters introduced in the first Destination Murders short story collection.  But don’t let that stop you.  Everything you need to know to enjoy the short story in this anthology is presented here.  I know I didn’t feel I was missing anything for the authors I don’t regularly read.

Now, if you are thinking you’ll get nine short stories set at ski lodges filled with snow, don’t worry.  Yes, we get three stories like that, but we also have stories set in the spring, summer, and fall.

And just what kind of stories do we get?  A week at a fitness camp gets off to a fatal start when the instructor is killed on the first full day.  A summer getaway turns into the race to save a childhood friend from a plot to kill him.  A trip to the mountains to escape wedding planning stress puts two friends on the scene of a deadly hike.  And a honeymoon to the mountains in Australia turns deadly.

I’d forgotten that these are longer short stories than you might be expecting when I picked up the book.  Like the first collection, these stories took me an average of 45 minutes to read.  So you get plenty of story for your time and money.

Even so, I felt like a couple of the stories weren’t quite focused enough.  They spent so much time on set up that when the murder actually took place, the culprit was identified almost too easily.  Most of the stories found that perfect balance between character, setting, and story.

And I enjoyed all the stories.  Whether I knew the characters well or not before starting this story, I quickly grew to like them.  The stories were varied enough to keep me entertained while still maintaining the vacation in the mountains theme.

This isn’t the exact same lineup of authors as the first book.  Many of the authors are back, so it feels connected to the first, but it is fun to get some different authors and characters here.

As a bonus, we even get a couple of recipes after two of the stories.

If you are craving a bit of mountain air, you’ll want to pick up Murder in the Mountains.  Me?  I’m going to play it safe and pick up another book.  You just never know what might be lurking in the mountains.

 

Included Stories:

“Double Bluff” by Gretchen Archer

“Five Days to Fitness” by Barb Goffman
“The Sound of Muzak” by Karen Cantwell
“The Picture of Guilt” by Leslie Budewitz
“The Lyin’ Witch in the Wardrobe” by Eleanor Cawood Jones
“A Killer Pocono Hike” by Tina Kashian
“A Perfect Climb” by Shawn Reilly Simmons
“The Edelweiss Express” by Shari Randall
“One Flew Over the Cocoa’s Nest” by Cathy Wiley

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.