All Sales Final
The Good Buy Girls, Book #5
By Josie Belle
ISBN 9780425271377
Author’s website: www.jennmckinlay.com
Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Jeanie
Synopsis:
Maggie’s impending wedding finds her more concerned with a cold case than cold feet in the latest from the author of Marked Down for Murder . . .
There’s something 100% off about Maggie and her fiancé Sam’s new dream home in the historic section of St. Stanley. The lights flicker, the doors blow shut, and their cat, Marshall Dillon, hisses at empty space. And there’s something in the basement that’s definitely not a bargain . . .
After Maggie discovers a skeleton in the root cellar, she’s convinced her house is haunted by a murdered man’s ghost. With the help of her Good Buy Girls, Maggie works to tag a killer. But she’ll need to be careful as she digs into the history of her new digs. Someone is willing to keep the truth buried at all costs . .
Review:
Maggie and Sam are getting married! Yet as the big day approaches, Maggie has not found a dress, venue, cake – even invitations. Is there a reason she can’t make a decision on what, to many brides, would be what they dreamed of since their Barbie doll daze? Why is it so much easier for her to decide on the home they will purchase and live in? And why of all times does Summer Fawkes, her archrival since childhood, now want to be one of the Good Buy Girls? Oh, mysteries small and great.
Mysteries great, as in the yucky surprises they found in their new home, the Dixon mansion: slamming doors, lights that go off – or on. The skeleton Maggie found in a blocked-in room in their new historic home was a little over the top, even for the Good Buy Girls. Sam’s charming cat, Marshall Dillon, certainly wouldn’t be caught in that basement again.
Josie Belle’s latest Good Buy Girls Mystery, All Sales Final, is fifth in the series. It can be read as a stand-alone, and most who enjoy this celebration of life and friendship will want to read the others in the series. They are too fun and full of excitement to miss even one of the rest.
The Good Buy Girls are a unique group of friends brought together by the art of being bargain-hunting, thrifty, coupon-cutting survivalists. Maggie is the proud owner of a consignment shop and has a fine eye for china, linens, and other collectible vintage goodies. The Girls come from various backgrounds. Claire is a librarian, Joanne a new mother, Ginger, with whom Maggie has been BFF’s with since childhood and the mother of four boys, and Maggie, whose grown daughter wholeheartedly approves of her marriage to Sam. The four friends are a hoot, loaded with Southern charm and wit. Maggie’s and Sam’s mothers are forces to be reckoned with. Yet were I in want of a friend, I would want someone like any one of these ladies on my side. Even the future in-laws.
The plot is at once exciting, suspenseful, and surprising, with the author pulling plot turns and twists out of her keyboard more adeptly than Maggie can negotiate the best price on a set of Limoges. Somebody had to have killed Captain Bones, as Maggie and Sam called him, yet the spinster sisters who lived there until their deaths couldn’t have known they shared their home with him. Or could they? Blue Dixon, their heir, unwittingly shared clues when consigning the sisters’ furniture and vintage clothing to Maggie. The historical society also shared information that led them in another direction. In the end, this reader was thoroughly stumped and mis-directed, and completely enjoyed this mystery. I highly recommend All Sales Final to adults of any age who appreciates mysteries with friendships new and old, bargain-hunting, and very well-written stories of suspense with a helping of romance.
