A Dying Art (Maggie Kean Mysteries, #1)

by Nageeba Davis

Maggie Kean is already having a bad day when the body of her friend and neighbour, Elizabeth Boyer is found in her septic tank. But from there, it gets much, much worse.

Although on the surface, this appears to be a simple cozy mystery, I would say it's closer to the crime fiction side of things than the cozy. Maggie Kean is your typical cozy mystery heroine, with her shapeless outfits, her impetuous nature and her snarky comments but the actual motives for the murder are definitely not very cozy. Still, it's more cozy than not.

I liked Maggie, she was rather funny, even if she had very little sense. The banter between her and the rest of the characters was enjoyable, although I would've liked to see more of the best friend, Lisa. The love interest Sam Villari was alright. I didn't love the romance, but that's more on me - I'm just a bit sick of romance and instalove at the moment. Their relationship develops about as you'd expect - crazy fast with lots of chemistry so depends what you like.

The mystery was well plotted and had enough twists and turns to keep me guessing. I didn't predict the guilty party so I was happy. It was an enjoyable read and I liked it enough that I'll likely pick up the other books in the series at some point. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.