WICKED WORDS

Hotelier wanders around Bath, helps solve mystery while she’s at it.

When Hannah “Honey” Driver’s overbearing mother Gloria Cross asks her daughter for one tiny favor, Hannah feels that she just can’t say no. Unfortunately, no favors for Gloria are ever small, and Honey ends up driving her mother and crew to the funeral of notorious letch Sean O’Brian. The funeral turns out to be more than Honey bargained for when O’Brian’s grave in Memory Meadow is already full. The body of travel writer Colin “C.A.” Wright is shoved into life-sized Teddy Devlin, a teddy bear usually reserved for soliciting donations. Honey sees the humor of the situation—the victim had a reputation for being distinctly unpleasant—but not her boyfriend, Detective Inspector Steve Doherty, who’s charged with investigating the crime. Even so, Doherty takes a fairly mellow approach to solving the mystery, and Honey’s preoccupied with a new project. When one of her mother’s friends meets a sudden end, Honey is suddenly responsible for Bobo, a tiny, incontinent dog. Thank goodness her daughter Lindsey is helping her take care of the Green River, the hotel she’s trying to run in her spare time. After a rambling and divergent collection of facts about Bath, along with interspersed moments of genuine humor, some suspense builds as Honey and Doherty try to uncover the truth.

Goodhind’s nonchalant attitude toward the mystery makes this one more likely to appeal to dedicated fans of Honey’s adventures (Murder by Mudpack, 2010, etc.) than to newbies.