Reviewed by annieb123 on
Absence of Mallets is the 9th Fixer-Upper cozy mystery by Kate Carlisle. Released 7th Dec 2021 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in mass market 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 and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is a fun and easy-to-read cozy with well established three dimensional characters and an ensemble cast. Although it's the 9th book in the series, it works fine as a standalone with the codicil that events and relationships established in this book will spoil some of the previous books if read out of order. Readers who read them out of order won't be lost or confused though; the author manages to fill in the backstory and character developments without spoon-feeding or info dumping.
For readers of romance who like some cozy mystery in their reads (or cozy readers who enjoy clean romance) this series will be a good fit. The plot is simple and mostly linear. The violence is mostly off scene and without gore. The language is PG and there is no racy content. The denouement and resolution were a bit over the top in my opinion, but not egregiously so.
Four stars. Well written and engaging.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 29 December, 2021: Finished reading
- 29 December, 2021: Reviewed