Lye in Wait
A Home
Crafting Mystery with Sophie Mae Reynolds
Cricket
McRae
Midnight Ink (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-7387-1116-0 (0738711160)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7387-1116-4 (9780738711164)
Publication Date: October 2007
List Price: $12.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Cocoa butter soap, check. Lemon lip balm, check. A dead
body?
That's just what Sophie Mae Reynolds finds in her workroom: the corpse
of Walter Hanover, the neighborhood handyman. He died from drinking
lye, something she has in good supply. But the police don't suspect
Sophie Mae, a thirty—something widow who makes and sells beauty
products. Instead they call it a suicide. But why would a man with
lottery cash and a loving fiancée kill himself?
No one can stop the impulsive Sophie Mae from answering this riddle,
not her sensible best friend Meghan or Detective Ambrose, who incites
annoyance as well as stomach flutters. Sophie Mae's big mouth and sharp
nose lead her to a peppermint—scented trail of arson, bigamy, and
a shocking family secret that reveals a personal connection to Walter
... and his killer.
Review: Cricket
McRae's winsome debut mystery, Lye
in Wait, introduces Sophie Mae Reynolds, a widow who sets up a
craft shop in her home specializing in soaps and other personal care
products.
Following her best friend's divorce, Sophie Mae is asked by Meghan Bly
to leave Seattle and move in with her and her daughter in the small
town of Cadyville, just north of the city. She's not only offered a
room but also space in the basement where she can set up a workshop to
create products to sell from her home-based business. Everything is
working out fine until Sophie Mae one day opens the door to her
workshop and finds the body of Walter, their handyman, dead on the
floor. It appears as if he had been poisoned by a concoction of lye and
other toxic ingredients. The police initially call it suicide, but
Sophie Mae could not believe that anyone could deliberately swallow
anything containing lye. She's convinced it was murder and sets out to
prove it. After all, the dead man was found in her shop!
It is entertaining to follow Sophie Mae as she becomes an amateur
sleuth. She's not above being a bit boorish if it furthers her
investigation. She discovers that Walter had recently come into some
money, always a motive for murder. The suspects are numerous and
include Walter's ex-wife, his fiancé’s brother, and even
Meghan's ex-husband. All cozies need the gruff but loveable detective,
and true to form there's Detective Ambrose who's always on hand to
remind Sophie Mae that murder investigations are best left to
professionals.
Lye in Wait is an
enjoyable book with a credible, if not complex, plot that's handled
well. It's a fine start to this new series. And, as is typical of
vocation mysteries, at the end of the book are recipes for readers who
would like to try to make lye soap and facial creams.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Lye in Wait and to Midnight Ink for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Lye in Wait? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series …
Lye in Wait
Midnight Ink (Trade Paperback), October 2007
ISBN-10: 0-7387-1116-0 (0738711160)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7387-1116-4 (9780738711164)
Heaven Preserve Us
Midnight Ink (Trade Paperback), August 2008
ISBN-10: 0-7387-1122-5 (0738711225)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7387-1122-5 (9780738711225)
Omnimystery keywords for Lye in Wait ...
Location(s) referenced: Seattle, Washington.
