MurderByDeath
I have always been a fan of the Blackbird Mystery series; it was always fun, always well written and sometimes a little edgy; enough heartbreak to keep thigs real, but not so much that it weighed the series down. The last book, A Little Night Murder, ended on a cracking cliffhanger and I was really looking forward to the next book.
But something happened in Nancy Martin's personal life, and I read a few months back there would be no more Blackbird Sisters for the foreseeable future. I get that, and the series was long enough that readers couldn't complain about it ending too soon, and it would be ending on a high note. But the cliffhanger!!! - no way she could leave us hanging like that.
Thankfully she didn't - Bye Bye Blackbird is a short novella that really is just about tying up the loose ends and answering the lingering questions. A small, token attempt is made at mystery, but mostly it's just high-jinx and antics, and it was great; at this point I didn't care about the plot as much as I cared about the characters. This short story entertained me and tied up all the loose ends and I'm left a happy camper with a shelf full of Blackbird mysteries I can revisit whenever I miss them too much.