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.

Sometimes it happens: a book gives a very great first impression and then slowly it slide down a slope. This was the case with this book, for me.

Twelfth book in the Daisy Gumm Majesty Mysteries, this is the first I read in this series. At the beginning, I really liked the lighthearted tone, the very natural, personal voice of the narrator (who’s also the main character) and the general idea. I thought it was going to be a fun historically set cosy. Later on, I really liked the idea at the core of the story of this con artist who pretends to be a spiritualist - and she may actually be, she might actually have a connection to the other world, even if she doesn’t think so herself.
But then as I read, the story, the language, even entire sentences, and most of all the concepts started to repeat. Entire episodes were told at least twice, once when they happened and once when the main character recounted them to other people. The worst were concepts: I can’t even count how many times I read that Daisy’s aunt is a marvelous cook when Daisy can’t even boil water. It got worse as the story progressed, so that by the time I reached the end it had wearing me.

While the cast of characters is very nice, the mystery in itself is very very lame. The mystery plot actually gets buried under a lot of mundanity, especially in the middle of the story. There’s a lot of everyday life description and very little plot evolution. The solution of the mystery was definitely far-fetched. Well, at least for me.
I also found that many themes crammed in the story were really not well-suited for the genre and the tone of the story. It may just be me, but I don’t think a light-hearted cosy mystery is the best place to address domestic violence, incest, sexual assault, abortion… and I mean all in one story. They ended up being very superficially addressed, with characters’ reaction questionably realistic.

All in all, I wonder if I may enjoy the first novels in the series more than I did this one. I did like the idea at the core of the series and the recurring cast is nice and sympathetic, but the treatment of this one sounded kind of odd to me.

This is book 12 in the Daisy Gumm Majesty series and is set in the mid 1920's. Daisy is engaged to Sam, a local policeman who was injured during WWI. This is an area of history that I'm not very familiar with and enjoyed learning more about the home life and prohibition in California. When Sam and Daisy are walking in the cemetery her dog brings them a shoe with a foot. The body is a local doctor who has a very shady reputation and who Daisy dealt with in a previous book. I want to go back and read some of the previous stories and look forward to more books with very likable Daisy and her crystal ball and spirit friendly nature. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

An amusing and entertaining historical mystery. The style of writing is really good, the characters are interesting and likeable and the plot contains no hole.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley