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A HUSH AT MIDNIGHT

By Marlene M. Bell

Welcome to The Book’s Delight and a stop on the book tour for A Hush at Midnight. See my review below!

 

Cozy Mystery / Small Town Mystery

Publisher: Ewephoric

Pages: 368

Publication Date: September 5, 2024

SYNOPSIS :

A manipulator.                                                      

A fatal plan for revenge.      

Award-winning author of the Annalisse series, Marlene M. Bell, brings distant friends together in the rural South only to have one of them become the victim of a brutal crime of passion.

Once celebrated for her show-stopping pastries and irresistible desserts, former celebrity chef Laura Harris is now making headlines for a far darker reason.

Laura has been accused of murder.                  

How could this petite chef have brutally smothered the beloved small-town matriarch, World War II ferry pilot veteran, Hattie Stenburg? Hattie wasn't just a pillar of the community; she was Laura's confidant and mentor. The shocking twist? Hattie’s will contained recent changes, bypassing next-of kin and leaving her entire fortune and historic estate to Laura.                                                             

As Laura scrambles to clear her name, she uncovers sinister secrets lurking beneath the town’s idyllic surface. The real murderer is always one step ahead, leaving taunting clues and threatening Laura to leave Texas—or face deadly consequences. With time not a luxury, Laura must untangle the web of deceit before the killer makes her the next victim.

In A Hush at Midnight, Marlene M. Bell twists an amateur sleuth crime mystery into a race against the clock to solve her mentor's murder.

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marlene M. Bell is an award-winning author of the Annalisse romantic suspense series. She’s also an acclaimed artist and photographer using her pictures for descriptive prose that eventually lands in her mysteries. Marlene lives with her husband of 42 years on their East Texas ranch with numerous sheep. When she’s not writing, drawing or painting, she is shepherdess to their Katahdin hair sheep and ranch kitties.

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MY REVIEW

 This is the third Marlene Bell book I’ve read. The previous books were part of the Annalisse series.

I love a good murder mystery and that is exactly what author Marlene Bell and her MC Chef and Cookbook Writer Laura Harris dish up in this entertaining novel. Laura returns to her Texas roots after a stint as an award-winning chef in California, where her brother runs the family restaurant.

Laura is halfway home after an uneasy visit with old family friend Hattie Stenburg when a niggling feeling tells her to return to the house only to find Hattie dead in the guest house. She calls the police and has to convince them her death was murder only to find herself in their crosshairs. Hattie, it seems is worth a lot of money. The suspects soon pile up, including disgruntled neighbors, a missing caretaker, and Laura’s boyfriend. With little trust in the police, Laura investigates Hattie’s death herself.

At her side is her widowed father who eyes an eye on her. But trouble is also brewing in her hometown where her friend's bakery is hit with bad reviews and equipment failure. Are the two related? It’s all beginning to be too much. But Laura has a new friend, the sexy smelling lawyer who handles Hattie’s affairs, and things are heating up in that department pretty quick.

With plenty of clues, mysteries, twists and turns, Bell takes the reader of a ride as she spins her tale of greed and revenge.

I really enjoyed the rural Texas setting with vivid descriptions of the countryside and life in small town America. There’s a good romance brewing even as Laura comes to grips with her current beau. Lots of layers, lots of details to wade through until the ultimate satisfying ending!  

I recommend this book to lovers of complex murder mysteries. 

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