Tequila Mockingbird (Australian Amateur Sleuth, #7)

by Morgana Best

[Mystereity Reviews]

Another day, another murder at Cressida's boardinghouse, only this time the poor victim was the 5th Earl of Mockingbird, Peregrine, who showed up with his entourage of female assistants and his driver. He's an unlikable sort of guy and it's not long before he's done in with a methanol laced shot of tequila. Mr. Buttons, who is immediately under suspicion as he had an acrimonious relationship with Peregrine, is nonplussed and mortified to be taken in several times for questioning. Cressida pulls Sibyl in to help investigate, complete with humorous capers and sleuth out the killer before the suspects can flee back to England.

I always love when I get to travel back to Little Tatterford and that dreary boardinghouse with death scene paintings on the walls. This is such a great series that really should get more attention than it does. It has everything; great plots, laugh out loud moments, characters who are delightfully offbeat and a cursing cockatoo, always entertaining and I look forward to each new book. This one had a couple of good red herrings, ones that I was leaning towards being completely unrelated to the plot but couldn't figure out why they were there unless they were related? I love when a book makes me question my thought processes while peppering me with things that make me laugh; Cressida's newest painting, Lord Farringdon's tantrum, it's hard not to giggle when reading these books. I also love the ideas Cressida comes up to snoop around. Drop bears, anyone? But the plot itself was quite good; with no information to go on other than the earl's catty entourage, I had fewer ideas on the suspects than Sibyl, Cressida and Mr. Buttons did.