By: Mary Daheim
Genres: Mystery Amateur Sleuth | Mystery Woman Sleuth
Posted: November 2, 2010
Unfortunately, Wee Willie and his entourage are passengers on the Empire Builder with Judith and Renie, and being confined to a wheelchair does little to tone down his personality. Discovering Willie is traveling on the same train is only the beginning of the cousins' troubles. They find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere (Montana) after the train collides with a load of sugar beets and to add insult to injury, their train attendant is suddenly missing. Attention focuses on Judith when Willie turns up dead and she becomes a suspect. The cousins must work together to prove Judith's innocence and discover the identity of the real killer before he, or she, strikes again.
Mary Daheim's LOCO MOTIVE is the 25th book in the Bed and Breakfast Mystery series. It starts off at top speed and doesn't slow down until the last page. This is the first I've read by this author, and I must admit at times I felt as though I'd fallen down the rabbit hole. Ms. Daheim's quirky sense of humor is obvious throughout, as is her gift for tying seemingly unrelated events together in a cleverly crafted whodunit. Judith and her cousin Renie play off one another beautifully, though at times I felt Judith was a bit snarky with Renie. LOCO MOTIVE stands independently as a well-written mystery, just be prepared for a few moments of confusion as you figure out personalities and relationships if it is your first Bed and Breakfast mystery.
Book Summary
From USA Today bestselling author Mary Daheim comes her latest Bed-and-Breakfast book featuring innkeeper Judith McMonigle Flynn and her irrepressible cousin Renie in a mystery that takes them on the wrong side of the tracks. . . . Loco Motive
It's autumn at Hillside Manor B&B, and with the changing leaves come some unexpected guests. There's Judith's son and daughter-in-law, with their two children in tow, a couple with an impossible (and unbelievable?) last name who show up from nowhere, and a pair of giggly young women who don't seem to know where they're going.
As Halloween draws nigh, Judith can barely cope with her gala of guests, but at least the worst guest from the first part of the week checks out—almost permanently. Wee Willie Weevil, infamous daredevil and martial-arts movie icon, insisted on performing his dangerous stunts from Judith's roof and left the B&B via an ambulance.
Hoping to escape the domestic mayhem, Judith agrees to accompany Renie on a cross-country train trip to Boston with first-class accommodations on the Empire Builder. Judith's bubble bursts when she discovers that Wee Willie and his entourage are fellow travelers. Although confined to a wheelchair, the diminutive stunt man seems capable of derailing the cousins' vacation.
Cousin Renie does her best to ease Judith's mind until the train collides with a truckload of sugar beets. Forced to wait for a new engine in a small Montana town in the middle of nowhere, the passengers can do nothing but watch and wait. Even before the train can get back on track, the cousins discover that their sleeper attendant has gone missing. Worse yet, another passenger's final destination is the nearest morgue.
Judith and Renie have to move full speed ahead if they want to blow the whistle on the killer before death strikes again. Can the train continue its journey? Will the cousins ever get to Boston? Stay aboard!
by: Mary Daheim
Bed-And-Breakfast #25 William Morrow
September 1, 2010
On Sale: September 7, 2010
Featuring: Judith McMonigle
320 pages
ISBN: 0061351563
EAN: 9780061351563
Hardcover