Murder, She Edited (Deadly Edits, #4)

by Kaitlyn Dunnett

As the hesitant new owner of a rundown property outside of sleepy Lenape Hollow, New York, freelance editor Mikki Lincoln must get her facts straight about an old murder on the premises--before the killer returns to meet the next deadline!

When Mikki inherits a nearby farm from a woman she hasn't seen in two decades, the unexpected arrangement comes with a big catch: forgotten diaries hidden in the neglected house must be recovered, edited, and published across the internet within one month. The lonely locale is like an untouched time capsule from the 1950s, and it was left behind for good reason

While searching for the mysterious memoirs and clues about the former owners, Mikki discovers that the once peaceful place was punctuated by an unsolved homicide and other rumored crimes. Worse, suspicious activity in the creepy, dilapidated barn suggests it really hasn't been abandoned at all...

In a remote farmhouse with only her observant calico cat, Calpurnia, keeping her company, Mikki must swiftly crack an eerie cold case from the past and stop a clever culprit from leaving red markups on anything other than pages of revised copy...

• ISBN10: 1496726898
• ISBN13: 9781496726896
• Publish Date: 27 July 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Kensington Publishing
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/isbn/9781496726896

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Murder, She Edited is the 4th book in the Deadly Edits cozy mystery series by Kaitlyn Dunnett. Released 27th July 2021 by Kensington, it's 288 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a small town cozy series which has really found its stride and is always fun to revisit. Protagonist Mikki is a retiree, part time freelance editor, and full time amateur sleuth. I like it very much that she's authentic as she is; she uses hearing aids, her joints plague her sometimes, and she has the same realities as the rest of us. Despite a sometimes-uncooperative physical body, she's very much in love, she's romantic, she's intelligent, and she's whimsical. I also like it that the author hasn't played into the cynical snarky irascible old lady trope, and I for one am thankful.

This whole series has been a fun and diverting read. There is a fair bit of peripheral editing and writing information woven into the narrative and the ensemble cast of returning characters are mostly appealingly quirky and fun. The small town politics and interactions provide a lot of color and atmosphere. The author also weaves mentions of other series and authors into the story and I found some good suggestions for series which were previously unknown to me. (I really like it when books lead me to other books).
The language is clean, the murder is off-scene, there's no sexual content, and this is a light cozy in a consistent series. There is enough back story interwoven into this one that it does work well enough as a standalone although plot elements written in here as backstory will spoil the previous books if read out of order. I have enjoyed the rest of the series, so it is probably worth picking up the earlier books.

Four stars.

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