Sunday, October 23, 2011

Just in time for Halloween...

Monster in Miniature
by Margaret Grace

Genre: cozy mystery
Series: A Miniature Mystery
Pages: 287
Rating:****

This is the thrid and final book in completing my Goodreads mini challenge for October.  I joined late, so I only read 3, next month I will do better!  This is also my first time to read a Miniture Mystery or a book by Margaret Grace.  I am so glad I did.  I never knew there was so much interest in 'dollhouses'.  I don't know why I am a super crafter, there can never be enough glue or glitter in the house.  I have even built a dollhouse.  Of course now it sits abandoned in the corner, (sigh).

A brief synopsisi first.  Gerry, short for Geraldine, is an avid miniaturist.  She is working on a haunted house with her eleven year old granddaughter Maddie.  Maddie is a Nancy Drew wanna be!  While the two are strolling down a street covered in Halloween decorations they, along with a group of teenagers, discover a dead body.  In true cozy fashion the victim is related to a fried of Gerry's and she must find out what happened.  Along the way city corruption is discovered along with secrets of her late husband.  If that's not enough Gerry maybe on the cusp of a new relationship with a nice retired gentleman, who also like to be crafty.  Sounds like a match made at Michael's!

Monster CoverSome of you may know, I love books with old ladies in them.  So I was thrilled to read about an older sleuth.  Gerry is agaile, smart, and a lot of fun.  She stays hip with the constant help of her technologically gifted granddaughter, Maddie.   One of the things I loved about the book was the constant sprinkling of wit and wisdom from Shakespear.  I didn't appreciate him in high school.  Monster in Miniature, is very well written.  It flows well and the plot is interesting.  There was a point when I thought I had figured it out, but I was wrong (I hate to figure the ending out ahead of time).   The 'extra' charaters were nice additions to the well thought out main charachters.  One in particular was surprisingly sinister, but I can't tell you anymore than that.   It was a great read, and I plan on reading more in the series.

If you haven't read a Margaret Grace book, grab one now.

-Caren

1 comment:

DMS said...

This sounds like an interesting book. I haven't read it or any other book by this author. Thanks for sharing!

I found you through Book Blogs and signed up to follow you. When you have a chance- please stop by and follow the blog for my middle grade novel that I am hoping to get published. http://thesecretdmsfilesoffairdaymorrow.blogspot.com/

Take care-
Jess- although I may show up as Fairday, the main character from my novel. I can't figure out why that happens and I can't fix it. :)