Murder at Cape Costumers
Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery #7
By Maddie Day
ISBN 9781496740595
Author’s website: edithmaxwell.com
Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Jeanie
Synopsis:
In Agatha Award-winner Maddie Day’s delightfully spooky Cozy Capers Book Group mystery, it’s Halloween, and Cape Cod bike shop owner Mackenzie “Mac” Almeida and her book club must unmask a killer…
Just in time for Halloween, a new costume shop has opened on Main Street in Westham, Massachusetts. Cape Costumers is a cut above the usual seasonal pop-up stores with their flimsy mass-produced outfits and cheap plastic masks, mostly due to co-owner Shelly, a former Broadway costume designer. But when Shelly discovers her elderly boyfriend Enzo—a Broadway star who retired to Westham—dead of unnatural causes, Halloween suddenly gets a lot scarier.
Sleuthing, Mac has found, is a lot like riding a bicycle: once you learn how, you never forget. Far from being spooked, Mac and the members of the Cozy Capers Book Group put down their weekly book selection and put their heads together to see past a bag of tricks and find a malice-making murderer who’s hiding in plain sight… (From Goodreads)
Review:
We are just in time for Halloween on this visit to Westham, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. Mac’s customers at her shop, Mac’s Bikes, were many compared to prior autumns. She sells bicycles, accessories, and branded shirts for cyclists, as well as providing repair services.
Abo Reba, Mac’s paternal grandmother, and Cokey, Mac’s niece, stopped to see Mac. They were visiting the stores on Main Street, where children could receive Halloween treats that afternoon. The new costume shop had a human-size skeleton with a freaky expression on its skull in their window. Cokey, the most fearless child Mac has ever seen, was so frightened that she refused to go in for candy.
Later, Mac stopped in to see the skeleton. Cape Costumers sold professionally-made, high quality costumes rather than mass produced offerings. Mac met one of the two owners, Shelly, who said that a friend of hers had tried on the skeleton costume and danced around in it. Mac felt as Cokey did, however, when she saw the leering skull head cover. The shop included a section of dance attire overseen by Shelly’s partner, Harini. Shelly had been a professional costumer on Broadway, in New York City, and Harini had been a professional ballerina.
The following day, Mac sold a three-wheel adult tricycle to Enzo, an acquaintance of her grandmother, Reba. An older, cheerful, man, he paid in cash and would pick up the tricycle when her service person did a final safety and working check on it.
Mac’s husband, Tim, is the owner of the bakery, Greta’s Grains. He was picking up his sister and her two youngest children at Logan Airport for their first visit to Mac and Tim. Jamie’s older children stayed with their father, but her two younger children, Luca, several weeks old, and Ella, 3 ½, would be with her. Mac genuinely looked forward to getting to know Jamie despite her history of addictions and mental health challenges. She is Tim’s only sibling, and he wishes she lived closer to them so he could help them when needed.
That weekend, Mac, Tim, Jamie, and her two children went to Mac’s family dinner. Jamie had been withdrawn the evening before, probably exhausted from travel. Mac’s family welcomed Jamie, and Ella was quickly befriended by six-year-old Cokey and Luca was snuggled close by Mac’s mother and grandmother.
The day after Halloween, a man was found dead on the balcony of his condo. He was wearing that eerie ghost costume from Cape Costumers. The man wearing the costume was, sadly, Enzo, Reba’s friend who had purchased the adult tricycle, and his death was considered a homicide.
That evening, Jamie went to meet a friend for dinner she said had moved to the area. She did not return. Tim finally drove to the restaurant, learned from the bartender that Jamie had been there alone, at the bar. The bartender had stopped serving her by nine, and she left. Ella, wanting her mother, was very upset. Tim and Mac settled Ella and Luca in for the evening, calming Ella and caring for Luca. Tim filed a missing person’s report the next night when they couldn’t find her.
Mac and her book group friends, the Cozy Capers, had begun to discuss Enzo’s murder and discovered several interesting leads. Mac shared those leads with Lincoln Hoskins, a state detective working locally, and looked into a few of them herself. Mac and her book club friends also looked into Jamie’s disappearance. Tim, Mac, and Mac’s parents searched and cared for the children.
This well-written mystery was compelling, and I appreciated having a low-key, Halloween-related mystery. Mac’s family continues to grow and welcome new members, with her new sister-in-law, Neli, plus Jamie and her children. I especially enjoyed Mac and Reba’s relationship. For the difference in their ages, they are very close, and can talk about almost everything. Mac’s family is unique with her father, a pastor, and mom, an astrologer; it has always been a home filled with love. Both mysteries were all-consuming. Enzo’s murder gained several suspects, but Jamie didn’t know anyone there. With Mac’s experience, I thought her questions might have been more blunt than usual. Some of Harini and Shelly’s annoyance may have been from living in New York City for many years, where one avoids personal questions from strangers, but one of the men became downright angry. I was surprisingly disappointed in the way both mysteries ended, a first for me for this series. I do recommend this mystery and series to those who enjoy well-written cozy mysteries with the beautiful east coast setting and close-knit families.
