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Buried in Bargains
A Good Buy Girls Mystery #3
Josie Belle

Berkley Prime Crime
Oct 2013/ ISBN 978-0-425-25230-7
Mystery/Cozy/Amateur Sleuth Holiday: Christmas season theme

Amazon

Reviewed by Laura Hinds

This third entry in the Good Buy Girls mystery series finds the women planning for the Christmas Season and excited about a holiday ball to be held by the wealthy Bianca Madison. Bianca is even donating exquisite ball gowns that had belonged to her mother and grandmother, but Maggie will only take them on consignment to her second-hand shop.

The ball is a success, and with some prodding from Maggie’s daughter Laura, even the shy new girl in town, Diane attends. Laura has befriended the young woman, who has recently moved to town and begun work at More than Meats, the deli owned by GBG Joanne, and her husband Michael Claramotta.

Yet the morning after the ball, Maggie goes to More than Meats and finds it closed. Concerned, she calls Joanne who rushes over to find out why Michael hasn’t opened the deli. Maggie and Joanne are in for a shock when they find Diane strangled with her own apron strings, and Michael lying in a pool of his own blood from a head injury. With no personnel file or other records of Diane, and a disconcerting conversation that Maggie overheard between Diane and Michael, it looks as if Michael is more than a person of interest.

With Joanne pregnant and fragile, Michael unconscious and unable to say what happened, Maggie and the other GBG’s: Claire and Ginger, band together to find the real killer- hopefully before he finds them!

This is a fun and fast read, well-paced, and plotted. It was great to have the gang from the previous books back, as well as the introduction of some new characters. I confess that I pegged the killer early on, and even had a good idea of who the ultimate hero might be, but neither of those things bothered me in the least. In fact, I was actually delighted that I was spot on about them.

As with the previous books in this series, 50% off Murder and A Deal to Die For, I found myself itching to hit up the local consignment shops to see what treasures I could dig up.

This would be a great holiday read, and if you pick it up now and read during Christmas shopping season, you’ll find a few tips to help you become buried in your own bargains!

Reviews of other titles in this series

50% off Murder #1
A Deal to Die For #2
Buried in Bargains #3
Marked Down for Murder #4


 
Reviewed 2013
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