Snowed in With Death (Holly Winter Cozy Mystery series #1)

Author: Ruby Loren

4 out of 5 stars

After winning a competition, Holly Winter travels to Horn Hill House where a group of famous private detectives are having their annual gathering. But only hours after arriving, one of the detectives is found murdered, then another soon follows. With the detectives dying one by one and a snowstorm trapping them in the house, Holly teams up with some of the remaining detectives to find the killer.

This story had a fast pace, almost too fast. The first murder happens quite quickly, but there still enough time to introduce all the characters and get some sense of their personalities. The entire story feels like a dark comedy. Between some of the characters’ personalities and the way the detectives didn’t seem to be taking the murders very seriously, the story just didn’t feel very serious. That’s certainly not a bad thing; I enjoyed it. But sometimes the characters were too easygoing.

I liked Holly. She’s a pianist, which is how she makes her living, but she’s also ended up involved in some mysteries and likes being an amateur detective. She does often go back and forth about whether she should stick to being a pianist, where she’s successful, or give detective work a shot, which is a very relatable feeling for many people considering changing careers. Most of the other characters were two-dimensional and similar to each other. I think at least a few more could have been better fleshed out.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. Holly is a good main character, so I would read more of the series for her. Due to the two-dimensional characters, almost too fast pace, and the characters’ attitudes, I decided to rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Price through Amazon Kindle: $0.99

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N9IAFRG

(I do not benefit from the use of this link.)