A Most Curious Murder

By: Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli

Libby audiobook 9 hours

Read by: Marguerite Gavin

Published: 2016  

Genre: murder mystery.

This is another one that I found by looking for available murder mystery audiobooks. It wasn't as bad as some of the others I've read lately, but I didn't love it.

"Jenny Weston moves home to Bear Falls, Michigan, to nurse her bruised ego back to health after a bitter divorce. But the idyllic vision of her charming hometown crumbles when her mother's little library is destroyed.

The next-door neighbor, Zoe Zola, a little person and Lewis Carroll enthusiast, suspects local curmudgeon Adam Cane. But when he's suddenly found dead in Zoe's fairy garden, all roads lead back to her. Jenny, however, believes Zoe is innocent, so when the two women team up to find the true culprit, investigating the richest family in Bear Falls, interrogating a few odd townspeople, and delving into old, hidden transgressions - until another body turns up."

The reader did a fabulous job making the different characters sound unique. It threw me for a bit that "Zoe" was pronounced "Zo" and not "Zoey," but that's just based on my relationships with people who spell their name "Z-o-e."

The ruined Little Library bothered me more than I can say. Sign out sheets? Blueprints for a replacement library? Helpers to "man" it after it's rebuilt? Where on earth does a LFL like this exist? All the ones I've seen are "take one / leave one" and self-service. That said, it was so sad that something so wholesome was destroyed along with all the books being ripped apart. I liked that Mr. Weston had built it for his wife before he died and made it look like their home.

I loved the allusions to literature! Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, . . . the literary aspect of this book is fantastic! (Zoe Zola is a fairy tale writer building off famous works.)

I kind of wish the author had done more with how the sisters got to be Jenny (trouble-maker) and "Lisa the Good." Clearly, Jenny had a lot of jealousy and feelings of inadequacy around her sister. I didn't really care for Jenny as a protagonist.

Adam, Aaron, and Abigail Cane . . . very interesting aspects to this story and why things happened the way they did. The actual heart of the mystery and who killed the brothers was well-written.

Johnny was clearly an alcoholic and a nasty person. Him leaving Jenny for Angel EIGHTEEN years earlier should not have still been a sticking point for Jenny! I know she was feeling upset because he ditched her (and upended her dreams) when she was young AND her husband just ran off with a client . . . but the way she had unresolved feelings about a teen boyfriend was too much for me. I was actually yelling at her in my car. When she went looking for him after midnight at a bar, I was just done with her. I thought surely he was on the verge of confessing that he was the one who killed her dad in a hit and run all those years ago . . . but that whole scene was just a teaser. And infuriating. 

The whole Mrs. Minnie Moon and her 19 year old daughter Deanna . . . seriously. Johnny ditched you when you were 18 and traumatized by your father's death. He got Angel pregnant and married her. They have two more children now. He's running around with your teenage neighbor. But you STILL don't know how you feel about him?!?! How could you remain in "love" with your teen sweetheart with whom you built an amazing fantasy life . . . for eighteen years?!?!? Grow up!

The mom, Dora Weston, was an amazing woman filled with compassion and kindness. Tony the carpenter (and former cop) was also a wonderful character. Just as I had thought that at least this story didn't have a flaky romance aspect to it, Tony and Jenny started getting flirty. 

The New York publisher Christopher most likely would not have made a trip to Michigan to visit his author Zoe Zola while she was told "not to leave town." 

 

Penelope was Jenny's former classmate and a very focused lawyer. 

 

One of the two of these characters had a great line: "I don't bother saying things I don't mean."

Since I listened to this mostly while driving, my notes aren't very detailed. I enjoyed the word play and literary allusions, but I disliked the stupid things that amateur sleuths (Jenny and Zoe) did while poking around.