Review :: Dead-End Detective :: Amanda Flower

I’m a big fan of Hallmark’s various Mystery tv series (faves so far are Aurora Teagarden, Murder She Baked, and Crossword Mysteries, but there are so many others I haven’t watched yet!) so when I spotted one of their latest mystery books, Dead-End Detective by Amanda Flower, available on NetGalley I was keen to check it out. I have in fact read one of Amanda’s books previously – Assaulted Caramel, which is the first in the Amish Candy Shop Mysteries series, and which I quite enjoyed. Read on after the synopsis of Dead-End Detective for my review.

What is Amanda Flower’s Dead-End Detective about?

Darby Piper is in shock. Samantha Porter—her mentor and business partner at Two Girls Detective Agency—has died in a car crash, and it doesn’t look like an accident. In fact, evidence is pointing toward Darby.

Darby had expected to inherit Samantha’s half of the agency, but Samantha had recently changed the will to leave it to Tate Porter, her nephew, who returns to town.

Tate is no P.I. He’s a veteran, a world traveler, and something of a mystery himself. But as he helps Darby delve into secret histories and real estate development plans, he does seem to have a knack for the job. Can Darby prove her innocence? And will the agency have a future?

My review of Dead-End Detective by Amanda Flower

I thought this was fun! I’ll definitely be checking out the sequel – this is the first in a new series. It took me a little bit to get used to the first person point of view, and there was a bit of scene setting at the start, but once the story got going I found it flowed well and was fun and pretty absorbing. I enjoyed trying to puzzle out the mystery alongside protagonist Darby, and I feel like this will be the sort of series where half of the fun is getting to know the characters around the town, and this will add to the cosy feel of the stories. The side characters were kind of charming – I particularly liked Darby’s elderly neighbour and the same neighbour’s cranky cat. I also liked that there wasn’t a strong romance storyline, but the beginnings of a love triangle are simmering away in the background.

There is some fun content about the book on the Hallmark Publishing website, including a featured recipe and a link to an interview on Hallmark’s Bubbly Sesh podcast. There is also an episode of the Bramble Jam Podcast Network’s Hallmark Book Club podcast about this book, which I’m looking forward to listening to soon! Let me know if you check this out what you think!

xo Bron
***

Dead-End Detective by Amanda Flower
Out now from Hallmark Publishing.
Source: Review e-copy provided to me by the team at Hallmark Publishing (thank you!) via NetGalley. All views are my own.
Category: Cosy murder mystery (first in a new series).

Dead-End Detective on Goodreads.
Find Amanda Flower online here.
Check out my review of Amanda Flower’s Assaulted Caramel here.