Say No Moor: A Passport to Peril Mystery
By Maddy Hunter
Midnight Ink
January 2018

Review by Cynthia Chow

Emily Miceli is taking her loyal clients of Destinations Travel on a whirlwind tour through southwest England, but considering their record of murder and mayhem, she should have expected a few speed bumps. To promote her and her husband’s new tourist agency, Emily has offered a discount rate to an additional six bloggers in exchange for some positive social media publicity. That seems rather improbable when at Cornwall’s Stand and Deliver Inn they battle with its distinctly New Jersey-accented chef, get flooded out of their rooms, and find the aforementioned chef dead. The Windsor City seniors may have become accustomed to encountering a body or five, but with the inn’s owner hauled arrested Emily finds herself attempting to keep the place afloat to appease her blogging clientele. While Emily’s grandmother admirably steps up to the place in the kitchen with outstanding Midwestern meals, a series of inexplicable burglaries seem doomed to award their vacation with a rotten tomato.

As Emily plants metal detecting treasure hunts and ventures to lawsuit-inducing ancient sites, she must mediate between competitive bloggers, one a researching Austenite and the other a far more progressive Austen Zombie Girl. As events conspire to strand them at the inn as their numbers start to dwindle, an even more dire fate awaits the tech-savvy Iowans; the loss of the use of their smartphones.

Expect chaos, zany adventures, and loads of humor and social commentary with this 11th in the Passport to Peril mystery series. The seductive former Swiss police inspector Etienne Miceli is unfortunately off with his family to meet the Pope, so Emily will have to rely on her ex-husband, the gender-reassigned Jackie Thum for dubious support. The bloggers may have thousands of followers, but the Iowan seniors are no slouches themselves at Twitter feed blasts, selfies, or Google searches. Their very modern reliance on their social media tech for survival is as hilarious as it is ironic, especially in such illustrious, historical settings. The highlights of this series are always the very regional quirks of Emily’s Iowan tourists, who race to be an hour early, know how to pinch a penny, and appreciate their most irritable member’s implacable snarkiness. As the novel’s criminal escapades escalate, so do the laughs, and at the core is the warm embrace of this unique little family. This continues to be a delightful series where the characters have become even more likable and enjoyable as their familiarity grows.

In this installment of Passport to Peril, Emily ends up roped into running a Cornish B&B after its proprietor mysteriously perishes. I enjoyed learning about Cornwall in between the crazy antics of the characters.

Say No Moor
Maddy Hunter
Available: January 8, 2018
Thank you to NetGalley.com for the opportunity to read an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
I’ve loved the Passport to Peril series for a while and am always excited to read the latest edition.
What I loved: Nana’s my favorite with Jackie being a fast second. I don’t remember Nana’s grammar being as poor in this edition versus prior novels but it has been a while… Hopefully Jackie will find her calling as a chef and sit out the next tour.
What I didn’t love: Why be married if your husband has an excuse to miss almost every tour since you two tied the knot? I get it…but why not have him back at home in Iowa doing something else instead of having him with the Pope in Europe with no cell service? Would it also be possible to have the Seniors head somewhere in Asia or Africa? Eleven books into the series and no trip to Japan yet?
What I learned: Cobblestones require flat shoes.
Overall Grade: B

www.FluffSmutandMurder.com

Maddy Hunter’s Say No Moor is hilarious, filled with memorable hijinks, features the usual unforgettable characters and has an interestingly twisty mystery.

Our narrator is Emily Andrew Miceli, tour escort and travel agency owner, who takes her band of Iowan seniors and some bloggers on a tour of Cornwall. While staying at an historic inn, things go from bad to worse when Lance, the quarrelsome chef and co-owner dies mysteriously. Emily is left in charge of running the inn, the cantankerous Bernice goes missing, there’s a thief stealing from the guests, another guest dies and, of course, there’s a mystery to solve.

Say No Moor is set in Cornwall and we spend most of our time at the Stand and Deliver Inn. I thought that being in one location would be boring but there are adventures aplenty. There are still some excursions to touristy locations and I love the realistic and relatable way that Hunter describes everything.

The plot progresses at a decent pace and there is never a dull moment. I’m grateful because it makes up for the tediousness of the previous entry in the series. The end of the book is especially jampacked with over-the-top moments which include natural disasters, the gang being held hostage and outlandish reveals. However, Hunter absolutely makes it work. She blends cackle out loud moments with a mystery that actually makes sense. Although I figured out the killer’s identity halfway through the book, I did not guess their surprising motive and I certainly didn’t know the number of twists the plot would take after that.

However, I wish that the mystery plot was more developed because the deaths and disappearance play second fiddle to the numerous other things happening. I would have liked the revelations as well as the bloggers to be more fleshed out because while the pieces do fall into place at the end, I would have preferred to see a greater sense of continuity. Furthermore, when Emily finds out that Lance’s death isn’t an accident, she barely does any sleuthing. I sorely miss her terrible plans and farfetched theories.

There are also too many characters and even Hunter herself can’t keep track of them in the narrative. While the bloggers aren’t a bad addition, there could have been less of them. I sometimes found myself mixing up the men because they don’t have much presence. However, the female bloggers are distinctive and some have an ongoing juicy Jane Austen drama. The usual Iowan gang are pitch perfectly hilarious and have distinct personalities even though there are so many of them.

I especially love that this book has a lot of Jackie. Emily’s former ex-husband but now female best friend, Jackie is so much fun and brings some much-needed diversity to the series. I cannot imagine a Passport to Peril book without her. She’s dramatic but always funny and willing to help out. I am also happy that Etienne, Emily’s husband isn’t in this book. He’s fine in small doses but he doesn’t really add much charm and humour to the series.

Say No Moor is a fun and hilarious cozy read with the usual memorable characters and a great mystery. While I do think the book would have benefitted with trimming a few characters and developing the mystery more, it’s still a great and entertaining read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Midnight Ink for this book in exchange for an honest review.

Say No Moor is the latest installment in Maddy Hunter's Passport to Peril series. This series follows Emily Miceli, owner of a travel agency and her adorable grandmother on their adventurous but deadly trips around the world. In this one, Emily leads a group of seniors and bloggers to England where they are the first guests at a new bed and breakfast overlooking the sea. Emily has to improvise when the chef ends up dead. Luckily, her ex-husband who has transitioned to a woman, is along for the trip and has a newfound talent for cooking. Just about everyone is a suspect and Emily does all she can to find the killer before the bloggers tell their followers not to travel with Emily's agency. The book is an enjoyable read with lots of good scenery. I recommend it and am anxious to buy the previous installments of this fun and engaging series.

Emily Andrews Miceli's senior tour group is at it again, this time in 'Merry Olde England', on the Cornwall coast. Trying to get more business for her tours, Emily has invited along five (very strange) travel bloggers - at a deeply discounted rate that only incenses her regulars - to give daily updates on the pleasures of touring with their agency.

But no sooner do they arrive at their destination than disaster befalls (did we expect anything else?). The abrasive chef dies shortly after serving tea, and when it's discovered it wasn't an accident, the group is informed they must stay where they are. But it gets worse when the co-owner of the inn (and life partner of the chef) is arrested and there's no one to cook or clean. But then they discover there's a thief among them: not only is money being stolen, but things like...wigs...and shoes. Who would want to do such a thing? It only escalates when one of Emily's seniors disappears, and no one seems to know where.

With a missing tourist and personal items, the body count mounting, suspicious bloggers, and Emily unwillingly running an inn that's apparently crumbling around them, nothing more can happen to them now...or can it?

As always, Ms. Hunter has given us another chapter in the topsy-turvy life of Emily Andrews Miceli and her (practically) insane seniors, who are more concerned with getting the best seat at the breakfast table than finding another dead body among them.

She brings you into their world so beautifully that you begin to wonder if you could survive a trip with them without needing medication yourself. The story is fast-moving and event filled, helped along by plenty of humor and more than one mystery to be solved. Emily's frustration is almost palpable, along with her fondness for each and every one of these irascible golden-agers who are having the time of their lives while finding reasons to argue with and attempt to one-up each other.

When the many mysteries are solved, they are woven together tautly and delightfully, giving us a conclusion not only believable but rewarding in itself; the pieces come together nicely and everything is just as it should be. I eagerly await the next tour and spending time with Emily's seniors (as I have come to know them). While this is part of a series, each book is written in a way that it can be read as a stand-alone; however, I will tell you that after reading the first in the series, Alpine for You, I was so enamored that I wanted to read each and every one, and I have no doubt that you will too. Highly recommended.

If I had read the previous books in the series, I may have enjoyed it more.

This was a fun cozy mystery that I finished in a day. The characters are fun, the locale is interesting and the plot moves along swiftly. This is the 11th book in the Passport to Peril series, and they've taken the reader all over the world.

Emily Miceli runs a travel agency and takes a group of senior citizens from Iowa all over the world on exciting tours. The group includes her grandmother, and her husband, a former police detective she met on one of her adventures, helps her with the group although not on this adventure. On this trip, Emily has added a group of travel bloggers that will blog from the trip.

The group goes to Cornwall where they stay in a seaside hotel that sounded lovely on the website, but has a few problems in reality. They're the first guests ever, the chef is temperamental, and the roof might be a little unstable. When someone is murdered, Emily has to investigate to protect her group and her reputation.

This is a fun series, and I definitely recommend this book. Thanks to Midnight Ink and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The latest in Maddy Hunter's Passport to Peril mystery series, we find our intrepid Iowans travelers at a historic Inn in Cornwall, England. Calamities of various proportions are the standard for Emily Miceli and her travel tours, and there was conflict a plenty in the book. One of the inn's owners is mysteriously murdered, and while the other owner is initially blamed, Emily is certain that there's more going on than meets the eye.

To be honest, I did not find this to be as good as past books in series, which was a bit of a disappointment. My main complaint is that, even despite the murder, senior shenanigans, and investigating, the plot felt a bit stagnant; I was also not a fan of the "Emily has to suddenly run the Inn" aspect of the plot or the "Help Jackie to Feel Useful" B-story (which felt shoe-horned in). For me, this series works better when the gang travels to different locations and keeps moving on, rather than always returning to the same spot (i.e. the Inn).

This can be read as a stand-alone. Long-time readers of the series may find this hit or miss. First-time readers of the series may not have as much of an issue as I did.

I was enticed by a cozy and funny murder mystery, and liked the cast of characters, but the set up for the mystery/detection was too far-fetched for me.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. A cosy mystery that is readable but not brilliant

Emily Miceli and her husband take groups of senior citizens from Iowa on tour to all kinds of exciting places. The tours are enlivened by the quirky group and their longstanding relationships... but also, inexplicably, by dead bodies. Emily's new definition of a successful tour is one that doesn't include a murder.

Her tour to Cornwall won't meet that criterion. But she didn't know that when she invited a group of travel bloggers to come along, in hopes of getting the word about her tours out to a new group of travelers.

We get to travel along to Cornwall and learn about interesting land formations, the history of highwaymen and smugglers, and the local cuisine. We also get to see the tensions among the bloggers, the ongoing drama among the Iowa seniors, and Emily's continuing connection with her ex-husband -- now a statuesque female with a fondness for fashion.

The tour is beset by disasters, the characters are hilarious, and the glimpses of Cornwall add to the charm.

Humorous cozy with quirky characters. Nice to have a mystery where seniors are traveling, blogging, and having adventures. If you like cozies, this one is a satisfying read.

Quirky cozy mystery

Maddy Hunter added another fun story to the Passport to Peril series. With Emily at the helm of another tour group of mostly seniors Jane Austen's England may never be the same.
If you enjoy humor, outrageous characters and a little dose of social media commentary with your mysteries you will love this story.
I received an advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I've read others in the series, so was able to follow the characters fairly well. I find them humorous and enjoyable, but missed the travel that usually occurs in the books, mainly because I've been to this area and was hoping to be reminded of my travels. Emily holds it all together - running the tour, running the B&B (1 owner dead, 1 a murder suspect), and solving the mystery.

I enjoyed the book, really appreciated the Iowan seniors because they are really funny.
It seems to me that the book is more a humorous one than a mystery as the mystery takes the back seat and it seems to be something that is not so important, just problems that cause problems to the tour.

Say No Moor is the 11th installment in the Passport to Peril series by author Maddy Hunter. It's the first that I've read, but even though I didn't have any of the character background it was very easy to pick up and dive into. Travel agency owner Emily Miceli is escorting a group of seniors, as well as travel bloggers, on a tour of Cornwall, England, when on their first night the chef is murdered! The chef's business partner is in police custody as a suspect and there is no other staff at the inn so Emily and the gang must fend for themselves in this laugh-out-loud cozy while trying to solve the murder and still conduct their tour. The competition and bickering amongst her senior citizen travelers is hilarious, and Emily must keep them in line while ensuring that the bloggers don't leave her any negative reviews. Coupled with the fact that her husband and business partner is away on a retreat, and her transsexual ex-husband is her current roommate, Emily really has her hands full! I highly recommend this cozy, and I'll be reading the rest of the series asap! A+

I put a big emphasis on characters in a "cozy mystery" and this novel definitely had a lot of big personalities! The setting was fun and I enjoyed the back and forth banter. Cute addition to the series

This is one of the better cozy mysteries I've read in a long time. Funny and suspenseful with moments of true hilarity. The is the first of the series I've read, but I'll definitely look for more.

I think I may have "Squeeed" when I saw this latest installment available on Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. I had enjoyed the first 10 books and have a background with a group tour company and could relate to the settings/situations. Well, you can see from my OK rating that Moor did not hit the same spot for me as the others.

I was not engaged by the story and it seemed to be stuck on low speed, maybe because this story is set in the same place and they aren't traveling around. The activities they do are quite mundane as well. The story needed to be developed more, something were dropped, rushed or not completely explored. Someone disappears and a group manhunt isn't done? Can't you envision the Iowan's doing multiple votes on how to organize the hunt? The family of one of the victim appears and the situation seemed to dissolve at the end.

The usual group of travelers were more low key which I liked as they could some times be over the top (which is intentional, but too over the top for me at times). There was also very little setting up of the situation which I appreciate after 10 books, yet I needed to be reminded myself of Jackie and Emily's former relationship. So, while I think the book stands alone fine, some new readers may have a couple of questions.

If I hadn't already been invested in the characters, I might have not finished the book. I'm still willing to give #12 a chance though.