Book Review: "Murder of a Sweet Old Lady" by Denise Swanson
This past weekend, we took a road trip to Massachusetts, which gave me plenty of time to read in the car. On our way back, I started Murder of a Sweet Old Lady by Denise Swanson and just finished it this afternoon. If you’ve read past book reviews I’ve done or follow me on social media, you know I consider Denise one of the best writers in the cozy mystery genre, as I fell head over heels for her heroine Deveraux Sinclair and the small town of Shadow Bend in Swanson’s Dime Store Mysteries. It might surprise you to learn that up until this weekend, I had only read Murder of a Small-Town Honey, the debut novel in Swanson’s prolific Scumble River Mysteries.
I read Small-Town Honey last fall, and as things have it, life got in the way and other books seemed to grab my attention over continuing the Scumble River series. I chalk it up to reading Small-Town Honey on a Kindle, and my weird relationship with books written in the third person. As much as I love having access to every book in the world from one device, I really like to hold a book, and I find I don’t feel as connected to the characters when I can’t flip through pages. So, when I began Murder of a Sweet Old Lady, I will admit a thought fluttered through the back of my mind, “do you remember liking Skye Denison, Sarah?”
Thank goodness I didn’t let that voice hold me back because I LOVED this book, earning 7 out of 7 crowns. This mystery. Wow. So different from any other cozy I've read. So dramatic and new compared to all the ho-hum mysteries that are out in the market today, and this was written in 2001! Twisted and dark and so juicy to read, Sweet Old Lady explains Skye's family dysfunction and her multitude of testy relationships revealed in the first novel, and sets Scumble River up nicely for the series to continue.
Skye is one of the most real characters out there in this genre. She's stubborn, she’s a bit selfish, she's haunted by her past, her love life is a mess, and she makes mistakes rather frequently. It's such a relief to read about a heroine who isn't the apple of everyone's eye and has to work to get people to like her. Skye struggles so much through this book, and it endeared me to her. Skye begins to realize her high-and-mighty ways have gotten her to where she is now, and she’s learning to live with the consequences. What’s more is that this book doesn’t exactly have a happy ending—it has a realistic ending. So often, once a case is solved, cozy mystery characters go back to their day-to-day life, but Skye carries a sadness with her that hopefully brings positive change in her tumultuous life.
If you're a person that likes to read cozies because the heroine gushes about her pets, has a cutesy hobby, or has a fun love affair with the town's resident hottie, then you might struggle with the darker elements of this book (I, myself, wouldn't call them dark, but some cozy mystery readers prefer things to be kept light and fluffy). If you are searching for a mystery that is raw as it is riveting and solved by an amateur detective who could be your real-life best friend, then you've found a series worth waiting for. Thank goodness I had the foresight to buy Murder of a Sleeping Beauty to have on deck. I’m off to begin it now!