Dead in the Doorway: A House-Flipper Mystery (House-Flipper Mystery, #2)

by Diane Kelly

Dead in the Doorway is the second in a delightful cozy series from Diane Kelly set in Nashville--where the real estate market is to die for.

A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES. . .

Whitney Whitaker has scored the perfect piece of real estate: a ramshackle white Colonial at the top of a hill with views of downtown Nashville. What more could a self-taught home-improvement maven and occasional house-flipper ask for? Ideally, the property of Whitney's dreams would not have come with a dead body blocking the entrance to the foyer. But Whitney, always quick to take heavy-duty matters into her own hands, also happens to be a skilled amateur sleuth. So that helps.

AND SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET.

Who is this older woman--and how did her corpse end up at the bottom of the staircase of this locked, unoccupied house? That is what Whitney, along with the support of her wood-working cousin Buck, Detective Collin Flynn, and, of course, feline partner-in-crime Sawdust, intends to find out. Her friendly-neighbor investigation takes a sharp turn, however, when Whitney discovers that the house's former owner was a gourmet baker whose secret recipe for peach pie was to die for--perhaps literally. Now it's up to Whitney to learn the truth about what happened before she loses this killer real-estate deal . . . and the killer comes knocking at her door.

Adorable...Whitney and Sawdust are a welcome addition to your home and bookshelf.--Kellye Garrett, Anthony, Agatha, and Lefty Award--winning author of the Hollywood Homicide series

• ISBN10: 1250197457
• ISBN13: 9781250197450
• Publish Date: 31 March 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 5 April 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Dead in the Doorway is the second House-Flipper mystery by Diane Kelly. Released 31st March 2020 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's imprint, it's 352 pages available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is an engaging and well written cozy mystery with a full complement of quirky neighbors, old houses, plucky female amateur sleuth, requisite grumpy (but handsome) law enforcement officer, much hated (and violently deceased) neighbor, resultant investigations, and a cat who gets some 3rd person narrative alternating with his owner, protagonist house-flipper Whitney. The chapters are labeled with the primary PoV character, so they're easy to keep track of.

The writing is appealing and entertaining, very light and engaging. The language is clean, the violence is off scene, there's nothing to horrify or scandalize. The author does refer unnecessarily to the house which Whitney and co. are flipping as the "flip-house" about a zillion times (I counted 66 instances, which is about 60 too many). It wasn't a huge deal, it's easy enough to glide over, but it did get to the point fairly quickly where it yanked me out of the story every time. Other than that, the denouement is well written and the book moves along at a good clip. I enjoyed it. I was previously unfamiliar with the series and this one worked well enough as a standalone. I will keep an eye out for more books in the series. It's exactly the kind of fun cozy I enjoy on a lazy weekend afternoon.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes