Pickled Piper by Mary Ellen Hughes

Pickled Piper by Mary Ellen Hughes ISBN-13: 9780425262450 Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: May 6, 2014

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Piper Lamb has opened her own shop of pickles and preserves, called Piper’s Picklings, in the idyllic small town of Cloverdale. The Cloverdale fair offers Piper a sweet opportunity to promote her business. With her new assistant, Amy, she sets up a booth centered around an eye-catching display of the ever-popular dills in an old-fashioned barrel of brine.

But things soon turn sour when fairgoers witness a fight between Amy’s boyfriend, Nate, and town council blowhard—and bagpipe player—Alan Rosemont. When Rosemont is found floating in Piper’s barrel, Nate becomes the prime murder suspect. With Amy’s boyfriend in a pretty pickle, there’s no time to dillydally. But as Piper searches for the real killer, she needs to be careful to preserve her own life…or she may end up a pickled Piper herself.


My Review:
Pickled Piper is a cozy mystery. The heroine was a nice person, and she tried to solve the mystery by uncovering useful information about other possible suspects rather than by accusing people to their faces or starting ruinous rumors. So I liked her.

The mystery did have some clues and you could guess whodunit from those clues, yet it wasn't really a puzzle mystery. The characters made some assumptions about who hated the dead guy and then tried to discover which of these people could have been in the right area at the right time. Until the very end, there wasn't any evidence, just people with motives who could have done it. I prefer mysteries where you have to fit all the evidence together until it points to one person.

There was a minor amount of bad language. There was no sex. Overall, I'd recommend this mystery to those who don't mind if it's not a "puzzle 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.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.