Murder, Local Style

Orchid Isle Mystery, #3

by

Leslie Karst

When the local orchid club president is murdered, Valerie steps up to catch the killer.

Murder, Local Style is the third book in veteran author Leslie Karst’s fun and layered Orchid Isle Mystery series, and once again, Valerie must step in to investigate a local death. When the president of her neighborhood’s orchid club dies after eating food she prepared for their club’s annual memorial dinner, Valerie naturally has a vested interest in clearing her name. 

Valerie Corbin, a former caterer, graciously agrees to help prepare the annual dinner when one of the two volunteers responsible must go to Oahu to care for her sick mother. Thankfully, only 60 attendees are expected, and most of the menu shopping has been completed. The menu is comprised of local favorites that sound delicious, and there are fun discussions of their preparation woven into the story. As is her tradition, the author provides recipes at the end of the novel. Valerie had only just attended her first club meeting at the invitation of one of her neighbors and was hoping to meet others from the area, but making everyone sick with her cooking wasn’t what she had in mind, so she had plenty of righteous motivation to discover the truth. 

Readers get an insider’s view of Valerie and Kristen’s marriage and home life, stressed by the murder and compounded by the building tensions between them and the inconsiderate neighbor next door, who uses loud power tools from dawn to dusk and has a dog that barks incessantly. Kristen’s nephew, Sean, has also come for an extended stay, and he gets upset when he overhears one of Valerie’s possible hypotheses, which would implicate his new island amour, who is also a member of the orchid club. Later, when he disappears for several days without a word to his aunt, Kristen is naturally concerned and upset, and Valerie doesn’t share her urgency to find him, which I found out of character for her. On the other hand, while Kristen has been somewhat supportive of Valerie’s past sleuthing, she’s really not on board this time, even though someone has done their best to point the finger at her wife. 

The plot is full of neighborhood gossip and intrigue, with everyone involved living within the same area. Everyone knows everyone else, their families, and all their business, so there are plenty of suspects to consider and some very good red herrings to rule out. As always, the author imbues the story with local flavor, both cultural and culinary. 

I recommend MURDER, LOCAL STYLE to cozy mystery readers, especially those who would enjoy a Big Island setting. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from the author through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours.