Cold Clay (Shady Hollow Mysteries, #2)

by Juneau Black

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Cold Clay is the second Shady Hollow village cozy mystery by author co-op duo Juneau Black. Originally released in 2017, this reformat and re-release from Hatchette on their Hodder & Stoughton imprint from 3rd March 2022 is 240 pages and is available in paperback format. Other editions are available in other formats.

This is a whimsical and offbeat cozy with the unusual twist that all the characters are highly anthropomorphic animals who talk, have jobs, and occasionally commit crimes. The story is set in a village (Shady Hollow) and the book is replete with those oddball/eccentric small-town cozy characters. Main protagonist Vera Vixen is the local beat reporter who is investigating events surrounding the discovery of a skeleton long buried in a local orchard.

All the standard cozy tropes are front and center: amateur plucky reporter who can't let a mystery go uninvestigated, handsome lawman love interest (he's a bear), a long ago unsolved disappearance, skullduggery, and village secrets. There are several disparate plot threads which are skillfully woven together into a comfortably satisfying denouement and resolution.

Despite being full of talking animals with "schtick-y" alliterative names, it's definitely not a children's or juvenile book and wouldn't be appropriate for small kids. It's also not animals as characters (à la Rita Mae Brown, Lillian Jackson Braun, & co.), but more like Mandy Morton's trippy Hettie Bagshot mysteries. The characters - are - animals. They speak and go about their business like humans in animal form. They do seem to refrain from eating one another for the most part and rabbits and mice coexist mostly peacefully with foxes, mink, and bears.

The mystery was straightforward. The dialogue was a bit choppy, but not egregiously so, especially considering that this is a collaborative writing effort. There is a weird atmospheric vibe throughout, but that could just be the surreal effect of the characters being talking animals which is never addressed in any way. I had some issues engaging with the main protagonist. She strikes me as an appalling combination of gullible and obnoxious, but she is undoubtedly plucky. It's not stated explicitly, but there is also a retro vibe to the whole story. For example, early on in the story, Vera's so concerned that other diners in a restaurant shouldn't get the wrong idea when she shows up at the local diner with boyfriend-bear Orville at breakfast time that she makes a point of saying to those present that they happened to run into one another on the way (just so no-one would think they spent the night together).

Odd mystery. Well constructed, but off-kilter in some way which is difficult to define. It has definite shadings of noir, but is, at the heart of it, a village cozy.

Three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.