Peg and Rose Solve a Murder by Laurien Berenson

Available August 30, 2022

Rating: 5 stars

I've never been one to binge read a series (unless you count the Sweet Valley High books I devoured in my early teens), but for the Melanie Travis series I couldn't help myself. Though this book diverges from that series a bit in characters, it grabbed me just as tight. While Melanie and her family travel the country in a rented RV, her aunts Peg and Rose find themselves knee-deep in a murder case back home in Connecticut.

Fans of Berenson's Melanie Travis series will be very familiar with Melanie's aunt Peg, a woman who popped up in Melanie's life after her uncle Max died unexpectedly and one of their prize poodles disappeared. Peg is brash and abrupt but she's also a devout dog lover and (in her own way) a loving aunt. We're introduced to Melanie's aunt Rose much later in the series and she's about as different from Peg as a woman can be. Needless to say, the two women don't exactly get along.

With her niece out of town, Rose decides she wants to extend an olive branch to her sister-in-law Peg. Unbeknownst to the readers until now, there was some bad blood between the women in the past, which Rose hopes to rectify. She does so by inviting to Peg to join her as Rose's partner in a bridge club. Of course things go sideways in a hurry when one of the players is shot to death in his home. As the newest members of a club that's been meeting for many years, Peg and Rose are considered prime suspects. Without Melanie there to help them solve the crime, they tackle the investigation together.

I started the Melanie Travis series in May 2017 and binge read most of it (books 3-20) between July and September. I (obviously) quickly fell in love with Melanie and Davey and Faith and, yes, Peg too. In this book, Peg and Rose do their own sleuthing, using their disparate personalities to approach their suspects in the way best-suited for drawing out the most information from each person... and there's a lot of information to be had. Each member of their new bridge club has their own secrets and Peg and Rose discover that they make a great sleuthing team.

For anyone who enjoys the Melanie Travis series, this book is a must read. For fans of cozy mysteries, if you haven't read Berenson's books yet put them at the top of your list!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.