Susan Witsend has inherited her grandmother’s UFO-themed B&B. Small town Doyle is known for UFO sightings and with a faux UFO on the roof, Susan’s B&B is always booked. When one of her cranky lodgers is found dead, the B&B is a hotbed for gossip. The dead man is the town sheriff’s ex-husband. FBI Agent Manaj is set to investigate the case while the sheriff appoints Susan as her CI.
Susan is paranoid. She feels that someone is always following her – an alien perhaps? Conspiracies galore but Susan wants to clear her B&B’s name of murder and everything else.
At Wits’ End is the first book in A Wits’ End Cozy Mystery series. As a series debut, this book has managed to capture my attention.
With a debut novel in the series, preference is usually given to characters and the setting. But this book is different. The character portrayal is appreciable and so is the mystery. Arsen Holiday and Susan are childhood friends. Their bond is well explained in the story. Sometimes friends do not have to remain friends for long, do they? 😉 Sue’s cousin Dixie has a tumultuous past – juive records and all that. Meanwhile, there’s another lodger who has managed to keep Susan on her feet – Professor Green.
Professor Green reminds Susan of her own parents. Helicopter Parenting/ Controlling are the words that can be used to describe the professor and Susan’s parents. This melancholic past of Susan is tested every now and then. When the sheriff is downright rude with Susan and tells her that she’s incompetent to solve the case, Susan takes it up as a challenge to prove the sheriff wrong.
Then there is the mystery of The Disappeared. A pub full of people and a couple of hikers disappeared one evening (including the building!) and they all appeared in the woods days later! The details weren’t revealed – mostly because nobody knew what happened – the mystery is still unsolved so I hope Susan solves it in one of the future books in the series.
Susan’s curiosity is appreciable. Although it does get her into trouble most of the times, I understand the reason she took it up as a challenge. Being brought up by controlling parents does make one fight for every tiny thing – someone calls you incompetent or underestimates you, you tend to prove them wrong. Been there, experienced that!
The suspense and the mystery are well-maintained throughout the story. The denouement was something of an action-sequence. The rumour that Agent Manaj might actually be MIB was hilarious. Well, she did say something about it in the end that left me gawping!
At Wits’ End makes its job of being an enjoyable and entertaining cozy series debut. I have the next two books in my TBR and I will be reading them soon. If you like to experiment with cozies then I do recommend you to read this book.
This might be a tad off-topic but let me ask you this. Do you believe that there are other lifeforms? Maybe green men or yellow blobs or cyborgs living in other planets? This is my opinion: Our universe is vast and most of it remains unexplored. It is hard to believe that Earth is the only habitable planet in the whole universe! And if you have come across the term Matrioshka Brain, you will know that there are people who believe that we are all part of a simulation. Maybe that’s the reason we haven’t come across other lifeforms so far? What say?
RATING
Writing Style: 4/5
Plot/Story: 4/5
Character Development: 4.5/5
Ending: 4.5/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
BOOK DETAILS
Title: At Wits’ End (A Wits’ End Cozy Mystery #1)
Author: Kristen Weiss
Published on: 21st July 2017
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Purchase Link: Amazon.com
Featured Image Credits: Goodreads
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