Review – Irregardless of Murder

E. E. Kennedy in her new book, “Irregardless of Murder” Book One in the Miss Prentice Cozy Mystery series published by Sheaf House Publishers takes us into the life of Amelia Prentice. From the back cover: Amelia Prentice, forty-something high school English teacher whose pet peeve is the non-word ‘irregardless’, trips over the corpse of a former student in the public library. Now her cozy small town life in the Adirondacks will never be the same. Amelia returns to school, only to learn this death was no accident and she’s a murder suspect. Then the victim’s mother disappears; friend Lily is thrown overboard from the Lake Champlain ferryboat, a mysterious millionaire wants to buy Amelia’s house, the school nurse is viciously attacked and Amelia’s old beau Gil seems interested again.And, of course, there’s the Lake Champlain monster. It will take all Amelia’s wisdom, humor and faith to figure out what’s going on. If she survives… I have to admit I miss the classic mystery novels by the masters: Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie and Earl Stanley Gardner who would provide a murder bring in their respective investigators or lawyer and give the reader such twists and turns until the mystery was resolved. Very difficult to get stories like that anymore. That is until now. Welcome E. E. Kennedy who with her new heroine, Amelia Prentice, gives us a taste of what those classic stories used to give us. There is a murder in the copy room at the public library of all places and Amelia literally trips over the body. Now she is the suspect in the murder and she sets out to find who really did it. However, the deceased left something behind, something the murderer has killed for and will kill again until he gets it. The murderer thinks Amelia has it, she doesn’t know what it is nor does she know she has it. Time is running out for her to find out who did it and why before she becomes the next victim. Ms. Kennedy has crafted a page turner worthy of the old masters, an exciting event, some story, another exciting event, more story. And the mystery is terrific. You want to figure out who us behind everything but you just can’t seem to and so you flip another page hoping for an answer which doesn’t come until the satisfactory end. E. E. Kennedy is a fun author that makes reading enjoyable even if you are sitting on the edge of your chair. Don’t bother bringing a beverage to drink while you read because you will forget it is there the story is that intense. Ms. Kennedy batted a thousand on this one. I highly recommend it.