Merry Merry Merry Murder

Cuddle Farms Mysteries, #1

by

Paty Jager

Nice holiday-themed start for a new cozy mystery series.

Merry Merry Merry Murder is the debut novel in author Pay Jager’s new cozy Cuddle Farm Mysteries series and features a widow returning to the hometown she grew up in to reunite with her family and start her life without her beloved husband. After the accidental death of her husband two years earlier, Andi Clark had experienced deep grief, and her dog, Cocoa, turned out to be the key to her healing. Realizing she could provide the same type of comfort to others, Andi learned more about therapy animals and decided to move back home to her family’s farm, rebuild her life, and start her own business, taking trained therapy dogs where they were needed most, like schools, hospitals, and retirement facilities. Thus, Cuddle Farms was born and soon expanded to include a miniature donkey, goat, and chicken, as well as Andi’s three dogs: Cocoa, Athena, and Lulu. 

The holidays officially kick off in town on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, with a Christmas market followed by their traditional tree-lighting ceremony later that night. But during the evening’s festivities, the body of a local woman is discovered, strangled with a string of Christmas lights, and Andi is determined to find justice for the victim’s little girl, whom Andi had overheard confiding to Athena about seeing her mother kissing Santa Claus, a man not her father. 

Andi finds out it’s hard to come home after so many years away. People have changed, life has moved on, and there are long-hidden secrets. The dead woman, Lauren Sheffield, is at the center of many of those secrets, and there are plenty of good suspects who have clear motives for wanting her out of their lives. Andi jumps into the case feet first because she wants an inroad with the new sheriff as an investigator: skills she’d developed over the twenty years she was away while helping her husband discreetly solve international murder cases involving privileged, high-placed, or government officials. From the sheriff’s perspective, she’s a nosy civilian but has local knowledge and connections he still lacks as a newcomer in town. So, although he cautions her to stay out of his investigation, he relies on her for the information she digs up. Along the way, Andi finally begins to reconnect with her old high school friends and expand her impact with her therapy animals. 

The murder occurs early in the story, and the author does the heavy lifting of building the world of Auburn, Oregon, while Andi asks questions. The murder victim had quite a well-deserved reputation as a seductress, and many local couples had been drawn into her games. With so many guilty husbands and wronged wives, the suspects are thick on the ground, and Andi has her work cut out for her just ruling out the most likely. The story meanders a bit with so many distractions, but when the truth begins to come out, the pace really picks up. With questions about her family’s dynamics that still require answers and the hint of a possible romance in the future, I look forward to the next book in the series. 

I recommend MERRY MERRY MERRY MURDER to cozy mystery fans, especially those who enjoy a holiday-themed story. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from the author through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours.