Really enjoyed this book/series. Very entertaining, and couldn't put it down. I recommended, this book for all mystery lovers..

This is such a cute and cozy mystery! As the Mushroom Festival starts a reporter is murdered and it's up to B&B Manager Kelly Jackson and her friends to find the culprit. I have never read this author before but I am glad I had the opportunity to find a new author.

Murder at the Mushroom Festival by Janet Finsilver is fourth installment in A Kelly Jackson Mystery series. Kelly Jackson, the manager of the Redwood Cove Bed-and-Breakfast, is looking forward to the Mushroom Festival in Redwood Cove, California. She has agreed to let Elise Jackson teach her mushroom class in the multipurpose room. Elise will be teaching the participants how to identify various mushrooms, how to cook with mushrooms and provide maps on where to find the fungi in the local area. One of the highlights of the festival is the mushroom hunting contest. Ned Blaine, reporter for the Redwood Cove Messenger, is attending Elise’s class and manages to anger a few people before it disperses. The next morning Deputy Sheriff Bill Stanton arrives to speak with Kelly. Ned Blaine was found shot dead (I’m so shocked) on sacred tribal land in Mallory National Park. When Daniel ends up the prime suspect, Kelly and the sleuthing seniors known as the Silver Sentinels dig into the case. Ned was investigating illegal redwood logging which included the stealing sinker logs and writing a book on places to locate mushrooms in Redwood Cove. Both items stirred up dark feelings and could have gotten Ned murdered. Someone is not happy with Kelly’s snooping and attempts to take her out of commission. It is up to Kelly and the Silver Sentinels to find the wrongdoer before they strike again.

Murder at the Mushroom Festival can be read alone. Everything you need to know about Kelly is included in Murder at the Mushroom Festival. I thought the book contained good writing and had a steady pace. Janet Finsilver has a conversational writing style that makes the story easy to read. I thought the characters were well established. Kelly’s coworkers, friends and the Silver Sentinels are friendly, welcoming characters. They are the type of people I would like to know and have as my friends. I appreciate that there is a diverse group of people. I especially enjoy the younger characters as well as the dogs. They provide levity and humor to the story. Kelly is friendly, caring, smart and level headed. I like the setting of Redwood Cove. It sounds like a great place to live with the water and forests (I have always wanted to life in the Pacific Northwest). It was interesting to learn about mushrooms. I had no idea there were so many varieties and how easy it is to find them. People do need to be careful since there are numerous poisonous varieties (great weapon for a killer). I would never have thought of using mushrooms in a dessert. The mystery had a couple of different components that all come together in the end with the loose ends wrapped up. Identifying the guilty, though, is a piece of cake. I really like that Kelly actively investigates. She asks clever questions while being subtle. Kelly does not blindly dive into dangerous situations (hooray). There are many cozy moments in the book (cooking, chatting, mushroom hunting, cookie baking and decorating, horseback riding, traversing down the river in a canoe) that aid in making Murder at the Mushroom Festival a delight to read. My rating for Murder at the Mushroom Festival 4 out of 5 stars (I liked it). This is my favorite book so far in A Kelly Jackson Mystery series.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Mushrooms, Murder and a bit of Mayhem! It’s the Week of the Mushroom and many fun events have been planned. Cooking classes and various mushroom hunting tours. Kelly Jackson, manager of the Redwood Cove Bed and Breakfast is participating in everything she can but it is not completely for her pleasure. No, she is tracking a murderer to clear her friend Daniel off the suspect list and the “Silver Sentinels” are helping her. Kelly finds herself in a little cold water but she and her friends are not giving up until they find the killer.

All my favorites were back for this new adventure but there was a new character that absolutely stole my heart. Priscilla, the mushroom/truffle-sniffing pig with a big pink bow. 🙂 Seriously though, Ms. Finsilver has created a wonderful cast of characters. The recurring characters are a tightly knit bunch and the new characters added several dimensions to the story. Several holding high places on the Sentinels suspect list. I really do enjoy the way this active group of senior citizens gets involved in the community and solving murders. I wish I was as active as they are.

The backdrop of the story is the illegal harvesting of Redwood trees and redwood sinker logs that have rested underwater for years. I found the information and description of the sculptures created from the redwood and sinker logs very interesting. The sinker logs are rare and there is a lot of red tape to obtain them legally. We also see how protective mushroom gatherers are of their foraging sites. In this story, one site is on sacred Indian land. I love learning new things while reading a cozy mystery. Plus the descriptions of the items and the places they were found created great imagery.

The author has given readers a solid mystery with plenty of twists. The Silver Sentinels had their lists on the board but finding someone with motive, means and opportunity just wasn’t lining up. Kelly was pulling out all the stops to figure it out. Readers like me will figure it out right before Kelly has her “aha moment”. Thankfully the woman can think on her feet.

At the end of Murder at the Fortune Teller’s Table, I thought there was a romance budding for Kelly, that part of her story is moving very slowly book wise but in the timeframe of the series is unfolding at the right pace.

I have enjoyed this entire series and excited about where the characters are headed and eager to read about their next story.

This was an enjoyable foodie cozy. This is a new series to me and I enjoyed the setting and the characters. I loved that it featured mushrooms, who don't get enough time in cozies especially when some are poisonous. The mystery was intriguing and I liked the flow of the book. I highly recommend this book and plan on reading the first books in the series

This is a great book with a wonderful story and well developed characters. The story flowed very well and was very enjoyable. This book will keep you reading long into the night and you will not want to put this book down until you finish. This was such a great read and full of surprises. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader’s copy of this book. The free book held no determination on my personal review.

What drew me in was the description and the cover. This can be read as a standalone. I did not feel lost or that I was missing something from not reading the others. I do plan to pick up the first three as I was delighted by this story. Ms Finsilver is a new-to-me author.

This book has a little of everything: mystery dealing with illegal redwood logging, Native American Indians’ sacred grounds, mushrooms, cooking class & mushroom recognition classes, a mushroom festival, and working animals.

A reporter’s life is cut short when he’s researching and planning to do an expose on mushroom patches. Why is he killed? Is it because mushroom hunters want the locations of their private patches kept secret, or because he stumbles upon higher staked secrets in his investigation? Kelly, Daniel, and the Silver Sentinels are looking for clues.

I liked reading about some of the different types of mushrooms and all of different ways to use them in food preparation. The Silver Sentinels are such a great group of quirky seniors. Nice to see a group work well together to accomplish good in the community. The mystery was well-plotted with plenty of suspects and enough twists. I had plenty of suspects and only figured it out just before Kelly did.

Murder at the Mushroom Festival

by Janet Finsilver

Murder, poisoning, blackmail, theft, destruction of Native American lands, assault, and threats! There’s plenty of action in Redwood Cove, a coastal town in northern California where lots of folks are gathering for the Mushroom Festival. Kelly Jackson, new manager of the Redwood Cove Bed-and-Breakfast finds herself in the middle of trouble when she and the Silver Sentinels, a group of amateur sleuths with wisdom and connections on their side, try to find a murderer and determine if the other crimes are related.

Murder at the Mushroom Festival kept me wondering at the identity of the villain as suspicion was thrown on various characters. The solution is much more complicated than one might imagine. Kelly and her Miss Marple-like fellow sleuths are likable. Two children, several dogs and a truffle snuffling pig add further interest. I enjoyed learning about mushrooms and about sinker redwood as the mystery progressed.

I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Lyrical Underground (Kensington Press) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 5/5

Category: Mystery

Notes: #4 in the Kelly Jackson Mystery Series, but worked well for me as a standalone.

Publication: April 17, 2018—Kensington Press (Lyrical Underground)

Memorable Lines:

He parked, and we got out in what I felt was an enchanted forest. I breathed in the life of the woodland around me. Musty, sweet, earthy, topped off with a sprinkling of salt from the nearby ocean. Spears of sunlight cut through the towering redwoods like beacons to highlight certain areas. A raven cawed, loud and raucous, as we walked through a sunlit glen. A hawk drifted overhead, soaring on the wind currents.

The waves varied in intensity. When a strong one hit the rocky shoreline, water exploded high into the air. The rise and fall of the swell, like a creature breathing, made the ocean a living body.

People who were sure their way was the only way could make life unpleasant.

Didn’t work for me at all. My first experience with this author and this series and I found it really hard work. I was missing a lot of background on the characters, but I can work around that if the rest of the story works, however it didn’t for me in this case. The dialogue is super stilted and doesn’t read like actual people talking at all and this kept pulling me out of the story. Never mind. This may work better for people who have already read the earlier Books in the series, although I can’t imagine that the dialogue issue would go away.

A delight to be back in Redwood Cove, especially for a Mushroom Festival. Have hunted and eaten mushrooms. Neighbor college guys were afraid to try them. More for me! An interesting murder and info on wood and mushroom patches. Adorable children and dogs, plus a pig make it all even more fun.

Murder at the Mushroom Festival is the fourth in the Kelly Jackson series and my first experience with the series or the author. In this installment, Kelly Jackson has been named permanent manager of the rustic Redwood Cove B&B and is gearing up for the festivities by bringing in Elise Jenkins to host a cooking class featuring mushrooms.

Among the town's guests are Ned Blaine, a reporter who is creating a lot of animosity as he noses into secret mushroom locations that he plans to disclose on the internet. Some of the locations are on reservation land and off limits. Also among the redwoods and on reservation land are "sinker logs," an extremely profitable result of old growth logged last century, some of which found their way into lakes and streams. Ned has a confrontation with Daniel Stevens, one of the local Native Americans and is found murdered on reservation land.

Kelly gets the Senior Sentinels involved and I enjoyed the way they go about solving the mystery and the different personalities involved. While this book may function as a standalone, it's possible protagonist Kelly was more fully developed in previous episodes. The little redwood community sounds disarmingly quaint and the seaside location is described well enough to taste the salt air and feel the heavy mist.

The well-plotted storyline keeps a steady and engaging pace introducing many interesting facts along the way regarding our beautiful northern California redwood coast. Kelly seems to be a missing manager for most of the activity, focusing on the whodunit and there seemed to be an abundance of character tension and a wide choice as to who might have done it.

The dialogue flowed naturally and the well-crafted plot came to a satisfying conclusion, wrapping up loose ends, but the culprit was not a surprise having been a strong suspicion from introduction. I was allowed this ebook download by Kensington Publishing Corp and NetGalley and greatly appreciated the opportunity to read and review. Recommended for fans of cozy mysteries, those who love our northern California coastal area, or anyone who loves to learn about the unique assets of our beautiful country.

Kelly, the manager at Redwood Cove B&B, is happy to host a cooking class during the Mushroom Festival. Visitors are arriving to the festival, and plenty of mushroom related activities are on the schedule. During festival week, a local newspaper reporter is found shot dead. Kelly and some sleuthing seniors look into who is behind his death.

The 4th book in the Kelly Jackson Mystery series. This is the first book in the series that I have read, but I plan on reading the first three too. A cute cozy mystery with a charming bed and breakfast in a small town.

Murder at the Mushroom Festival is Janet Finsilver's very enjoyable fourth entry in her Kelly Jackson cozy mystery series, and it was a pleasant return to Redwood Cove. Kelly and the Silver Sentinels are investigating another murder, and also an attempted murder, during the annual Mushroom Festival, but they're drawn into the theft of a very rare piece of sunken redwood lumber as well. When Daniel, one of Kelly's closest friends, is suspected of the murder, she enlists the help of her boss, Michael Corrigan, who immediately swoops into town to help. One of the things that I enjoy most about cozy mysteries is the continuing and developing relationships between the main and recurring characters, and it was so nice to spend time again with them! All in all, a very pleasant and quick read, like a visit with dear friends. I recommend starting the series from the beginning, but this book works well as a standalone. A+

Nicely done cozy featuring an intrepid amateur in Kelly and, even better, her friends the Silver Sentinels as they try to figure out who killed Ned Blaine, a reporter, and why. There's a good number of potential suspects in Ned's murder- he's ruffled feathers-but trust that through twists, turns, and some nice dialogue, this group will solve the mystery. I liked learning more about mushrooms as well as the Northern California setting, especially the redwoods. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'd not read this series before but I very much enjoyed the book.

Kelly Jackson, manager at the Redwood Cove B&B, decided that she needs to find out more about the region so she signs up for a few of the events related to the Mushroom Festival. When the body of a local reporter is found murdered in an area where she was with a friend, Kelly knows that she needs to find out what happened. This story revolves around valuable regional resources, greedy, and jealousy. I love how the characters are growing with the stories.

The annual Mushroom Festival is ready to kick off in Redwood Cove, CA and it looks to be an interesting weekend. for Kelly Jackson, manager of the Redwood Cove B&B, she’s looking forward to participating in the activities as one of the newest residents. Things kick off with a mushroom class hosted at the B&B where a local report seems to have raised the ire of several local participants. The next day as the festival kicks off, the day begins with the murder of the local reporter…and her friend Daniel, manager of Redwood Cove B&B sister Inn is the primary suspect.

Knowing that Daniel could never harm someone, Kelly and the Silver Sentinels, a group of local seniors who solve crimes in Redwood Cove are hot on the case. Soon Kelly is a potential next target when she is warned to stop asking questions, is threatened by another suspect , and is pushed into the river. Will the Silver Sentinels and Kelly find the murdered before Daniel is taken away or Kelly comes to harm?

This book kept me engaged and had me struggling to put the book down and go to sleep…I HAD to find out who did it and why. Well developed characters and well written. While it is the fourth in the series, I had not read any of the other books and was able to settle right in. I can’t wait to read the first three books in the series!

Charming Setting, Good Characters and Solid Mysteries

Murder at the Mushroom Festival is the fourth book in Janet Finsilver’s Kelly Jackson Mystery series. The series takes place in a small town on the coast of Northern California with caring, well developed, and affable characters and a well-plotted story line that flows at a steady pace. As with the other books, there are multiple mysteries woven throughout the book and in the end, they all come together and the reader can see how they are related. I enjoyed the twists and turns and didn’t guess who the bad guy/guys are until the reveal. I look forward to reading the next installment in this series and recommend it to readers who enjoy a clean, well-crafted mystery.

Kelly Jackson is the manager of Redwood Cove Bed and Breakfast and loves her job, the people she works with, and the community she lives in. During the course of a mushroom festival, Kelly learns about various species of mushrooms, Redwood sinker logs, and the illegal harvesting of Redwood trees. Local harvesters of mushrooms are very protective of the locations of their best mushroom sites and big money is involved with cutting down trees and retrieving the sinker logs from the river. Ned Blaine, a reporter for the Redwood Cove Messenger, has upset quite a few people with his articles, so when his body is discovered on sacred Native American land, there is no shortage of suspects. When Daniel Stevens, manager of a neighboring property, becomes a person of interest in the murder, Kelly is determined to help her friend and calls upon the Silver Sentinels, a group of wonderful seniors who enjoy solving mysteries, to help her investigate. When Kelly and the Silver Sentinels are solving a case, she doesn't purposely put herself in jeopardy, yet it always happens.

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

Murder at the Mushroom Festival is the fourth book in Janet Finsilver’s Kelly Jackson Mystery series. As the new manager of Redwood Cove Bed and Breakfast, Kelly is immersing herself in the culture of her new small town on the northern California coast. Part of her responsibilities is to help with the various festivals, the latest of which is the yearly mushroom festival. The B&B is hosting mushroom cooking classes to which attendees are both locals and out of towners, including the Professor’s brother Tim and his competition buddy, Clarence. Also attending one of the meals is Redwood Cove Messenger reporter Ned Blaine who is known for his unorthodox ways of getting his stories.

Throughout the festival, Kelly joins in on many of the finding excursions, even accompanying fellow manager at a sister resort, Daniel Stevens, to a special mushroom area on his tribal lands. When the reporter’s body is found the following day on these lands, Daniel ends up as the prime suspect due to an earlier altercation with Ned.

Kelly refuses to allow her friend to be railroaded for a crime he didn’t commit, so gathers her friends the Silver Sentinels to assist by doing their own investigation. When Kelly is pushed into a swift moving river and Clarence is fed poison mushrooms it is apparent that they have each gotten too close to the truth. But when Kelly is tricked into the path of the murderer, she must use her long held ranch skills to save herself.

Another well constructed story in this different cozy series. Interesting characters, lovely setting, and twisting tale come together in a fast paced book. I have enjoyed the books in this series and do recommend this one.

I really like this series and had no problem jumping in here at book four after somehow missing #3.

The story was different with Finsilver adding local flora detail (mushrooms and sinkers (read to find out what they are)to her mythical Redwood Cove. I really like the characters and wish the large supporting cast got a bit more page time, though those closest to Kelly get the most.

The mystery and how it unfolded keep my interest. The weakness was some of the details. The mushroom "festival" seemed to be attended by a handful of people and Kelly is supposed to be running a business, yet she hardly ever seems to be doing any work. The only other staff member mentioned is the cook, Helen. Who is checking in guests, answering the phones, cleaning the rooms, etc.? Just a few lines here and there would take care of that pesky issue.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Kelly is hosting a cooking class in her bed and breakfast to promote her business. Instead of promoting business, it promoted murder...

Lyrical Underground and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published April 17th.

When a obnoxious reporter is killing on sacred Indian ground, Kelly's Indian friend is taken into custody. She knows he didn't do it. So she and the Silver Sentinels set out to solve the crime through old fashioned fact finding.

One of the uncommon facts Kelly learns is that the sunken cedars under water are worth big bucks. The minerals in the water change the color of the wood and it can be carved into unique pieces that sell well. She has her suspicions about who is harvesting this old protected wood that you need a permit to remove but she can't prove it. What she doesn't know is how dangerous this quiet community is.

When a man attending the cooking class collapses, they find he has been poisoned by mushrooms. He was the only one that got the bad ones and a doctor at the scene managed to save him but who wanted to kill him?

There are more questions and not many answers until the end of the book. I enjoy older people helping solve mysteries. Kelly was a well developed character and the story was enjoyable. This was a good cozy.