Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Primer and Punishment is the fifth House-Flipper mystery by Diane Kelly. Released 21st Feb 2023 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's 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. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is an engaging and well written cozy mystery with a full complement of quirky neighbors, old houses (this time a houseboat!), plucky female amateur sleuth, requisite grumpy (but handsome) law enforcement officer, unlamented murder victim, resultant amateur sleuthing, and a cat who gets some 3rd person narrative alternating with his owner, protagonist house-flipper Whitney. The chapters are labeled with the primary PoV character, so they're easy to keep track of.
The writing is appealing and entertaining, very light and engaging. The language is clean, the violence is off scene, there's nothing to horrify or scandalize. The denouement is well written and the book moves along at a good clip. It's a well written light read. Despite being the 5th book in the series, it works quite well as a standalone read. Fans of Amanda Flower, Kate Carlisle, and Sarah Graves will find a lot to like with this series..
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reviewed by annieb123 on
Reading updates
- 18 March, 2023: Started reading
- 18 March, 2023: Finished reading
- 18 March, 2023: Reviewed