Merry Market Murder by Paige Shelton

Merry Market Murder by Paige Shelton ISBN-13: 9780425252352 Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: December 3, 2013

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Bailey’s Farmers’ Market is this season’s go-to holiday destination. Jam and preserve maker Becca Robins is excited about the extra business that the Ridgeway Christmas Tree Farm is bringing to the market this holiday season, but not all the vendors are happy to see the Ridgeways.

Then a competing tree farmer, Reggie Stuckey, arrives with a truck full of trees and says that he has exclusive selling rights at the market. When Reggie is found with a tree stake in his chest, Becca sets out to untangle the relationships of those involved and is helped along by mysterious ornaments that begin to show up in her stall.


My Review:
Merry Market Murder is a cozy mystery. It's the fifth book in a series. You don't need to read the previous novels to follow this one, and this book didn't spoil the whodunit of the previous novels.

The mystery was a clue-based puzzle mystery. I saw how the clues were fitting together long before Becca caught on, but Becca didn't have many "this is obviously a clue" to work with. She had to untangle the relationships of everyone involved before she ventured to guess why people didn't like each other. Reserving judgment and not jumping to conclusions is a good thing.

The characters were realistic and interesting, and the "good guy" characters were likable. The motives behind people's actions were understandable. Most of the clues were gathered by Paige chatting with people and her speculation about some odd Christmas ornaments that were mysteriously left for her. Her boyfriend was the lead detective and appreciated the potential leads that she brought to him, so their relationship seemed like a healthy one.

There were no sex scenes. There was a minor amount of explicit bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this enjoyable mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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