Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Virtual Book Tour & Giveaway: A Basket Case (Maddie Sparks Mystery, #2) by Lesley A. Diehl

 

A Basket Case (Maddie Sparks Mystery Series) by Lesley A Diehl

About A Basket Case

 

A Basket Case (Maddie Sparks Mystery Series)
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting - Upstate New York
Publisher: Camel Press (November 12, 2024)
Paperback: 250 pages
ISBN-10: 1684922208 / ISBN-13: 978-1684922208
Digital ASIN: B0D4MWFWSP

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Maddie Sparks believes she has found the perfect balance in her life-Zack, the man she loves, a book she loves writing and volunteer work at a local museum with a granddaughter she adores. An old flame from Zack's past arrives and drives a wedge into Maddie and Zack's romance, her writing stalls and someone murders the museum's director just as the museum is about to return a collection of Native American artifacts to the Onondaga and Oneida nations. Standing over the dead body of the museum director is an Indigenous man from neither group who insists one of the baskets in the collection belongs to his family. The authorities believe he is the killer, but Maddie does not. With her love life on hold, Maddie and her granddaughter set out to identify the killer, but their search reveals thefts at the museum and a two-hundred-year-old family secret that is the key to the motivation behind the killing. When Maddie uncovers the history behind the feud over the basket, she knows the identity of the killer, making Maddie his next target.

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About Lesley A. Diehl


Cows, Lesley learned growing up on a farm, have a twisted sense of humor. They chased her when she herded them in for milking, and one ate the lovely red mitten her grandmother knitted for her. Determining that agriculture wasn’t a good career choice, instead, she uses her country roots and her training as a psychologist to concoct stories designed to make people laugh in the face of murder. Unusual protagonists appear in many of Lesley’s works including Desdemona the crime-fighting potbellied pig, a hobo turned county sheriff and Lesley’s zany back-home-on-the-farm relatives (The Killer Wore Cranberry, all six anthologies). She is the author of several cozy mystery series (The Eve Appel Mysteries, Laura Murphy Mysteries, The Big Lake Murder Mysteries, and her newest, Maddie Sparks Mysteries, featuring a senior sleuth and her rescue cat). Her cozy mysteries have won several Readers’ Favorite Awards and a short story Sleuthfest Award. Find out more at www.lesleyadiehl.com


Review:

4 stars!

Intriguing double mysteries and complex personal relationships combine for a compelling story. 

A Basket Case is the second book in author Lesley A. Diehl’s intriguing Maddie Sparks Mystery series. Still, newcomers to the series can easily pick up, catch up, and enjoy it as an introduction or standalone. When a director at the museum where Maddie’s granddaughter is completing a college internship and she is volunteering is murdered right before completing the turnover of Native American artifacts to local tribes, Sara’s boyfriend’s father, a well-known Native American activist and a claimant to one of the museum’s holdings is accused of the crime. Maddie, convinced he didn’t do it, enlists her defense attorney son, Richard, to represent the man in the white justice system and her love interest, former local sheriff Zack Montgomery, to investigate and find the real killer. 

Maddie and Zack had grown serious and close over the summer; however, when he returns from a trip to visit his adult daughter, Amy, he shows up not only with her but with Mary Sanders, a woman with whom Zack apparently had a long history, one Amy has decided he should rekindle. Maddie is stunned when Zack bows to his daughter’s wishes and moves his things from Maddie’s place into the B&B where Amy and Mary are staying. Knowing Amy is fighting a battle with drug addiction and needs her father’s support, Maddie tries to understand his actions and, though heartbroken, goes along with the situation. Maddie and Zack’s interactions are awkward and hard to watch unfold, especially with Mary stirring the pot every chance she gets. Zack comes across as weak and indecisive in his handling of his relationships, but he’s being torn apart by his need to be there for his daughter and be with the woman with whom he’s already fallen in love. His blindness to Mary’s toxicity and lack of the skills his daughter needs goes on way too long, and there are consequences. 

The situation at the museum is also more complex than originally imagined. There is evidence of a very toxic work environment with ongoing incidents of harassment, racism, and misogyny, and  pieces from the museum’s collections are suddenly going missing, with forged lookalikes left in their place. Sara discovers the discrepancies and shares her concerns with her grandmother, but their knowledge may have put them in the crosshairs of a killer. Although clues are hard to come by, Maddie and her friends are able to piece together enough plausible hypotheses to conduct an investigation, though with so much going on in the story, their efforts were scattershot for much of the book. The difficulties in the various personal relationships really distracted everyone: Maddie, Zack, and even Sara, who had to deal with her protective parents and being in a mixed race relationship. However, red herrings come and go as plot twists complicate an already intricate case but guaranteed my attention and entertainment until the final resolution.

I recommend A BASKET CASE to cozy mystery readers, especially those who enjoy a more mature set of sleuths, strong female protagonists, relationship-heavy plots, and behind-the-scenes looks at museum operations.



Tour Participants


December 6 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
December 7 – Maureen's Musings – SPOTLIGHT
December 8 – Rebecca M. Douglass, Author – REVIEW
December 9 – Sarah Can't Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
December 10 – Celticlady's Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
December 11 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read - REVIEW
December 12 – Deal Sharing Aunt – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
December 13 – Jody's Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
December 14 – Reading Authors Network – AUTHOR GUEST POST
December 14 – Frugal Freelancer – CHARACTER GUEST POST
December 15 – Sapphyria's Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
December 16 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
December 16 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
December 17 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
December 17 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST
December 18 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
December 19 – Christy's Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST


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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:01 AM

    So glad you enjoyed the book and recommended it to readers.
    Lesley A. Diehl

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the review.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This looks like a great mystery. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete