Rock Bottom (An Imogene Museum Mystery, #1)

by Jerusha Jones

Meredith Morehouse, curator of the eclectic Imogene Museum, is suddenly short-staffed. Her favorite (and only) graduate student intern, Greg, is missing—without leaving behind so much as an empty pizza box, to say nothing of a note.

Plus, a prowler has been rearranging the museum’s brand new chamber pot exhibit. When Meredith's nighttime vigil to flush out the intruder results in witnessing a murder, she calls in Sheriff Marge Stettler. Soon nearly all the other inhabitants of the small town of Platts Landing, Washington, (including hunky tugboat captain Pete Sills) are in on the hunt—for the killers and a body that’s drifting down the Columbia River. Is the dead man her intern or somebody else? And if it's somebody else, where on earth is Greg?

• ISBN10: 1477829202
• ISBN13: 9781477829202
• Publish Date: 8 September 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 29 June 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Thomas & Mercer
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 208
• Language: English

Reviews

[Mystereity Reviews]

Meredith Morehouse, a curator at a small museum in Washington State, finds herself embroiled in three mysteries: a missing grad student, a murdered man and a chamber pot stealing prowler. Can Meredith get to the bottom of it all?

Every so often, I start a new series, always with the hopes of it being the next all-consuming reading orgy that I will obsess about until I read all the books. This series will be my new obsession. I liked it from the very first page; funny, smart, and compelling, I was drawn in from the first chapter.

Meredith is a likeable main character; she's smart, self-sufficient, level-headed and just a little ditzy when it comes to men (who isn't?) She is very easy to relate to, as are the rest of the cast of characters. The setting, a small town in Washington State, sets up the small town atmosphere with a nice community of people They're all a likeable bunch and you're given just enough of an introduction to flesh them out, but not so much detail that you can't keep them all straight.

As for the plot, it was one big mystery and two small mysteries in one book. For me, the novelty of the story is that the main character doesn't really do any sleuthing. She doesn't go out and interrogate suspects, she doesn't assume the cops are inept, bumbling idiots that can't solve a crime, she doesn't put herself in a remote locale alone with the killer, who confesses all. I guess that's what makes it enjoyable; it was compelling to watch the plot unfold around you.

A great read and I'm already starting the next in the series.