Murder at Harbor Village by G.P. Gardner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Cozy Murder Mystery
Cleo Mack has just been asked to retire early from her position as a social work professor at a university in Atlanta. She finds herself in Fairhope Alabama, a picture perfect community known for retirees and it is love at first sight. While exploring the town she meets a wonderful older lady Nita, and they become fast friends. Nita lives in Harbor Village, a retirement community and assisted living facility. The very next day Cleo has a chance encounter with Jamie, RN and acting administrator at Harbor Village who is on the hunt for a part time social worker for a Resident Services position at the facility. When Cleo stops by to check the place out she is instantly drawn to it. It seems everything is falling into place, a new part time job that still gave her time to enjoy her retirement, and an apartment to go go with it but is it too good to be true?
Once Cleo gets moved in, things really start to shake up. First the unpopular director, Lee, is found murdered in the pool and turns out that she was the newly wed wife to Cleo’s ex husband. Travis asks Cleo to take over as acting director and snoop around for him. He thinks some fishy things have been going on lately and the finances aren’t matching up. As Cleo starts to uncover not only money discrepancies but missing medications too, she may be on her way to figuring out who the murderer might be and why.
“The problem is, the police phone log doesn’t agree. Dispatch says the call didn’t come from Dolly’s phone. It came from an unlisted number.” “What’s known as a burner phone. The type drug dealers use.”
“I recoiled. “A murder? Is that what they’re calling it now?” “A suspicious death, possible homicide. That’s the official terminology. I still say drowning, but technically it wasn’t.”
“I resolved to spend the next month applying the Sudoku approach to Harbor Village and its problems. I planned to use logic, to be systematic and to try new approaches when necessary.”
“I think I should call her at home. An employee who skips work and doesn’t call in? The week after we have a murder on the premises? Of course we should check on her.”
Very good cozy mystery! This one kept me guessing who the murderer was the entire time. An easy and entertaining read for all ages. The characters are all likable and the story line was well thought out. Cleo is very level headed and, unlike the main character in other cozies I have read, she actually calls the police when she finds evidence. 😀 There is more to the story than the murder as well, so you become invested in what will happen next. Cleo is cleaning house and making Harbor Village a fun and excited place for retirees to come and enjoy. The residents feel comfortable in coming to her and saying what they like and don’t like about the place. Cleo listens to both the residents and the other employees about what they need and makes it happen. Now that the embezzlement scheme has been put to a stop to there is plenty of money to make Harbor Village a wonderful place to live. I am very interested in continuing the story and reading the next book in the series. If you like Cozy Murder Mysteries, this is one of good ones and I highly recommend it!
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