When Benni Harper's friend passes away, he leaves his Broken DIS ranch to his daughter Shawna and her husband. Instead of raising cattle, the couple decides to turn it into a dude ranch. And while their intentions may be good, business is not. Leave it to Benni and her family to come to the rescue. Her plan? To tempt vacationers with a quilting and western extravaganza. It works. And soon, Benni and her family are cooking, quilting, and horseback riding with a whole slew of western tenderfoots." But the west gets a little too wild when one of the ranch dogs discovers a human bone on the property. It's enough to scare any reasonable guest away. To top it off, there's a rumor that one of the visitors is a nationally known travel writer, secretly working on a write-up. A bad review could easily kill business. Before long, Benni's old nemesis, Detective Ford "Hud" Hudson, is on board investigating. Together they uncover the remains of a murdered man buried in a shallow grave. Now, Benni must keep the guests safe and happy while unearthing the truth behind a terrible crime.
Well, I suppose it has to happen at least once in every series, but at least in this series, it took 10 books before I found one I didn't think was excellent. The plot was good, but I guess I just didn't like that Benni was without her usual cast of friends and family (they were there, but all much more in the background than usual). I didn't feel the empathy I'm sure the author was aiming for in the plight of the ranch owners, and I just didn't click with the story overall. It happens. But I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this series to anyone enjoying cozy mysteries.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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7 December, 2011:
Finished reading
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7 December, 2011:
Reviewed