Say No Moor

Maddy Hunter's “Passport to Peril” series is everything you want in a cozy mystery series–good whodunits filled with eccentric characters, exotic locales, and a put-upon sleuth who somehow happens to be around when bodies show up. Her newest outing, SAY NO MOOR, is no exception.

“Passport to Peril” centers around a group of octogenarian Iowans who tour the world with the much younger Emily Andrew-Miceli leading the way as organizer of the tours. No matter where they go, someone always turns up dead and Emily reluctantly puts the threads together to find the murder. How she does it with a gaggle of elderly loons dogging her the whole way is beyond me. This adventure finds them ranging all over the beautiful coast of Cornwall, England.

The best part of any Passport book is the strange group of seniors that tag along on Emily's sleuthing. And the seniors are where Maddy's ability to really write shines. When an author slaps you in the face with a pile of characters, they run the risk of losing you. Your brain has to “create” these characters in your head, and without suitable source material, they can become a jumble of nobodies fast. Maddy doesn't have this issue. Each character is distinct. They quickly fall into archetypes of people that you actually know or have met before, and they become crystallized quickly in your brain. After the first two or three chapters, they become like old friends. And by the end of the book, they're family. And she some somehow manages to replicate this feat with each book.

As typical with Maddy's books, the humor in SAY NO MOOR is spot-on, fast, and fitting. It ranges from subtle one-liners to slapstick, to character-based humor that comes out of Iowans being...well, American...in foreign countries. Not to mention the pleasant humor that comes from the juxtaposition that technology has brought into the lives of these intrepid adventurers.

“Passport to Peril”–come for the mystery, stay for the jokes. As always, Maddy knocks another book out of the park, and I will be looking forward to the next adventure, CATCH ME IF YUKON, which should be out late in 2018, and will send the folks to Alaska. Poor, poor Emily...