Mercy Carr is preparing for her grandmother Patience's marriage to her long time beau Claude Renault at the Lady Slipper Inn with Mercy's mother Grace in charge of the event. First sign of trouble is the disappearance of Bodhi St George, the spa director. When Mercy and her boyfriend game warden Troy Warner go to Bodhi's residence to investigate his disappearance, they discover a body, identity unknown. When family members arrive for the wedding, it's obvious that there's something going on with Claude's family. Another murder - the person is connected to Mercy's uncle. Elvis, Mercy's dog, uncovers bones twenty years old of a young female. Does it tie into whatever is going on? Who is Bodhi St George and what is his connection to the dead bodies? Loved the ending - great addition to the series.
Thanks to Netgalley for a copy.

This book is full of action, drama, suspense and a murder to solve. Merci and Elvis will keep you turning the pages to see what happens next. This is a book you don't want to miss!
I received a complimentary copy from St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books via NetGalley and was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This review was originally posted on <a href="https://booksofmyheart.net/2022/07/16/the-wedding-plot-by-paula-munier/" target="_blank"> Books of My Heart</a>
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<i>Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.</i>

The <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/229122-mercy-elvis-mysteries" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em><strong>Mercy & Elvis Mysteries</strong></em></a> series has become a favorite for me with plenty of mysteries, well-developed characters and dogs.   In <b>The Wedding Plot</b>, a veterinarian, Patience, who is Mercy's loved grandmother,  is marrying another veterinarian, Claude.  Mercy's mother, Grace is running everything and various family members not met or developed previously are on hand.  Patience is no problem but Grace is worse than Bridezilla.  Grace means well but her ideas for Mercy are not what she wants for her life.

Mercy ends up heading to the destination inn where the wedding will be held early since the spa director / yoga  instructor has gone missing.  Her great aunt, Prudence, is the inn manager for the owner, Mercy's wealthy friend, Daniel Feinberg.   The Inn is a lovely destination in Vermont and I enjoyed the details, from the gardens to the goat farm where cheese is made nearby.

The mystery of missing spa director Bodhi is a key to some things happening here.  He is more than he seems and has connections with the wedding party as well as history here.   Bodhi, at least, provides clues to Mercy as she tries to figure out why someone is trying to kill him or her or others.

The murders are another layer of the mysteries with someone being murdered the night Bodhi disappears.  The victim is not easily identified.  Did Bodhi kill him?  Or does he have a connection to someone else in the wedding?  Or was it random?

The development of all the unusual characters who are parts of both families is well written.  Their styles and hopes & dreams vary, and so the side plots of their lives add overall to the richness of the story.  Previous books may have mentioned them but the only one we knew so well is Patience. She and Mercy are close.

Munier always does an excellent job of providing plenty of different levels of things happening at once.  Here we have the wedding, the quirky personalities and rivalries in the families, the mystery of the missing spa director,  the murders,  and dogs.  There is much more involved in the history of the families and the inn, but I won't spoil it for you.  <strong> The Wedding Plot</strong> has much to offer and I look forward to more of this series.

Mercy knows that her grandmother's wedding is going to be stressful- her mom is running the show-but murder? Bodhi, the spa director at the resort where the event will take place, has gone missing, a mysterious man is found pitchforked in the goat barn on the farm where he lives and well, there's something going on with the men in her grandmother's fiance Claude's family. Luckily, Mercy has Elvis, her ace tracking (and very protective) shepherd and her love interest Troy, a game warden, and his dog Susie Bear. Mercy and Troy find themselves deep in a (somewhat convoluted) mystery with tentacles that lead back in time. They make a great pair of pairs. It will help tremendously to have read the earlier books in this series but even fans might find themselves lost in the many characters (especially in Claude's family but also in Mercy's). The Claude subplot could have been its own novel. That said, there are some terrific bits (love the goat farm) and characters (the dairy cop) and the relationship between Troy and Mercy advances. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Volume 4 in the Mercy Carr Mystery series takes a Mama Mia twist, as Mercy and her family gather at the Lady Slipper Inn for her grandmother Patience's wedding to Claude Renault. Mercy, with her trained and trusted dog Elvis at her side, not only participate in the wedding festivities, but also solves a cold case involving a young camp counselor who went missing 20 years ago. The Wedding Plot makes for great escape reading that takes readers to the Green Mountains of Vermont. Lively personalities and numerous family issues provide enjoyable plot twists and turns.

The Wedding Plot by Paula Munier is Book #4 in the Merry Carr Mystery series. Who would have thought a destination wedding at a pricey resort would be the setting for murder and mayhem. Mercy Carr and her canine partner Malinois Elvis along with park ranger Troy Warner with his search and rescue dog Sugar Bear face much danger as they try to untangle the convoluted spider web of clues in order to save the wedding of Mercy's grandmother Patience and Canadian veterinarian Claude at the Lady Slipper Inn.

This storyline is complex and attention-grabbing. The tension is just right and the pacing is too. I really like the main characters, human and canine. For me this was a "can't-put-down" page-turner. I loved the surprise ending!

The Wedding Plot – Paula Munier

It is early summer in Vermont, and Mercy Carr is preparing herself, both mentally and physically, for her grandmothers wedding at the lavish Lady’s Slipper Inn, in just four short days. With Mercy’s mother Grace acting as the matron of honor, Mercy herself is trying to act as a go-between for her mother and grandmother in attempts to have everything run smoothly. Now, with her mother coming up the driveway, Mercy can only cringe and wonder what the problem is now.

As she quickly learns, the director of the resort’s Spa, Bodhi St. George has gone missing, and Grace wants Mercy and Elvis, her retired military trained shepherd, to go and find him. To appease her mother, and perhaps her own curiosity, Mercy agrees to go and assess the situation.
Upon her arrival, a cursory check of his Spa and office yields no clues. A look at his living quarters, however, and a chat with his landlord, have Mercy intrigued. Even more so when Elvis alerts, and Mercy finds a lockbox for a weapon, and finds the gun is gone. Then Elvis alerts to a body buried under the straw in a goat barn – and things just got a whole lot more complicated

As the murder investigation heats up, the wedding guests begin to arrive, and thankfully, so does Mercy’s boyfriend, Vermont State Game Warden Troy Warner along with his search-and-rescue dog Susie Bear. Together Mercy & Troy work to solve this murder, keep peace in two families with simmering feuds, find the missing Yogi and protect Mercy’s eccentric family who insist that the show must go on at all costs…

I absolutely love this series and the Mercy & Elvis duo. When I first read the synopsis for this book, I was a bit surprised – they have had some stellar adventures together, but…a wedding? I needn’t have worried – it was vintage Mercy, with plenty of suspense, action, conflict, humor, romance (I LOVED the chapter header quotes!) and a wonderfully surprising ending! I can’t wait to see what the future holds for Mercy and Elvis! This series belongs right at the top of your must-read list!

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley & St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books in exchange for an objective review. Do you love to read?? Visit netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!

Vermont, Malinois, newfoundland-dog, law-enforcement, family, family-drama, family-dynamics, friendship, small-town, small-business, goats, murder, murder-investigation, veterans, wedding, search-and-rescue, covert-ops, cheesemaker, ex-seal, ex-spy, ex-military*****

Elvis the Belgian Malinois is a retired US army MP with two tours in Afghanistan behind him, just like his human partner, Mercy. Susie Bear, the beautiful Newfoundland dog is a search and rescue specialist working with her Fish and Wildlife warden, Troy. Mercy's grandmother is remarrying and her daughter (mercy's OCD controlling lawyer mother) is putting on the destination wedding to beat all. But. First the spa director/yogi master goes missing and an unidentified corpse is discovered by Elvis in the goat pen. Say what?! Lots of plot twists and red herrings to keep things crazy, including a priest who saves stolen artworks, a SEAL team gone rogue, an uncle who claims to be retired from covert ops, and a twenty year old pile of human bones. A good read that grabbed me by the brain and wouldn't let go until finished!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from St Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

If you've been following this series--and if you like a well-written New England mystery you should--then you're going to be thrilled with the ending of this latest addition. But that's all I'm saying.
Plenty of twists and turns in this one and the setting and the descriptions of Vermont are beautiful. You'll wish you were there! This is rapidly turning into one of my favorite series because it has such a great combination of animals, people, veterans, and locales.

I received this ARC from the Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This is the fourth in the series. I read this book first and then had to go back and read the other three books. This is a wonderfully written series and the characters are well developed. You just fall in love with Elvis, bomb sniffing dog and Mercy former MP. This book can be read alone but the characters and the back story really developed with each preceding book. We meet up with Mercy and Elvis when her mom, asked her to find the Inn’s Spa Director, Bodhi St. George who has promised to give yoga lessons to Mercy’s Grandmother’s wedding guest. Mercy and Elvis go to where Bodhi’s lives and speak to his landlady, who doesn’t have a clue on why Bodhi is missing. The landlady takes them on a tour of her farm and Elvis finds a body in the barn. It looks like Bodhi might have had something to do with it and that is why he is missing. But Annie, the Landlady doesn’t believe that Bodhi had anything to do with the murder and asked Mercy to look into. As Mercy and Elvis try to figure out who the victim is and why he was murdered and what happened to Bodhi, she starts to meet the groom’s relations and realizes that they might be involved in this murder. With the wedding happening soon Mercy is starting to worry that her family might be in danger. Pick up this book to read and find out what happens to the wedding and whether or not Mercy can solve both cases.

My thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of The Wedding Plot.

4.5 Stars

As Mercy’s grandmother, Patience, prepares to marry her longtime beau at the five-star Lady’s Slipper Inn, it promises to be the year's destination wedding. What can go wrong, you ask? Throw in the bride and groom's wacky families, dead bodies, the biggest storm of the season, and loss of electricity. Thank goodness for Mercy and Elvis, together with Troy and Susie Bear to stop the killer. Can they save the day for the bride and groom—before death do they part?

This is my favorite book in the Mercy and Elvis series, so far. It isn't a light and cozy series but there is some humor, and ex-military Mercy and ex-military Elvis are a good team. The Wedding Plot may be the most action-packed book of the series, so far. It also has Mercy's relationship with her mother finally moving forward.

I've complained in the past about Susie Bear being described as having a pumpkin head over and over. I'm happy to say that it was probably only a few times in this book. (I hope that wasn't because Susie Bear didn't have a large role in The Wedding Plot.) It definitely helped me have a more positive outlook on this series!

I recommend it!

I love this series. The author continues to keep me enthralled in this well-written and fast-paced drama that quickly became a page-turner as I had to know how this was going to end. The mystery was three-fold, where is the missing spa director, who is behind the murder, and will this wedding happen? With Grace, Mercy’s mother, planning this wedding, it’s up to Mercy to figure it all out. I enjoyed the complexity and the family dynamics as it was the backbone in what was going on with the situation at the lodge. Someone wants a few in the wedding party dead and when Mercy is harmed, the stakes are high to apprehend this person. There were plenty of suspects, peppered with a few red herrings to keep me in the game and when the killer’s identity was revealed, I didn’t see that one coming. Good job, good job. And that ending. . . This is one of the best books in this fantastic series and I do hope there is a fifth book coming.

I love this book. Number 4 in a terrific series, The Wedding Plot is as fabulous as the 1st three.
A strong female character and her dog Elvis are both ex military. They solve crimes with the help of friends.

This book will keep you on the edge of your seat.

This is a series that keeps getting better and better. Mercy is a complex, interesting and wonderful character who drives the series along with her intelligent, can do everything, dog Elvis.
Just before her grandmother Patience is getting married the yoga instructor from their wedding resort has gone missing, and Mercy’s overbearing mother has tasked Mercy with finding him.
Interesting plot, great characters, I highly recommend this series.

Fun storyline with dogs as tenacious as their people. An usual setting with the goat farm, a possibly called off wedding?
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this arc

Mercy Carr is getting ready for a 4-day extravaganza that's called her grandmother's wedding. Being held at an inn and spa she's not looking forward to it. When her mother contacts her and demands she find the director of the spa or Mercy will be dusting off her Yogi skills and leading the yoga class for the wedding guests. Mercy begins her search at his home. what she finds instead is a dead stranger stabbed with a pitchfork and that Bodhi, the spa director, isn't who he said he was.
Concerned the murder might have something to do with her grandmother's fiancé's family she has to find out what's going on before the wedding is ruined, or someone else is killed.
I really like this series and this book did not disappoint. I've been concerned about how the author will keep the series fresh and I'm less concerned now. The use of the dogs Elvis and even Susie Bear does not seem out of place. The mystery is fast paced and well done. Though there's some humor in the book, this is not a cozy. It's can get quite dark and intense. If you like the character driven mystery, (with dogs) you'll love this book.
#netgalley #theweddingplot

Paula Munier's Mercy Carr series just keeps getting better and better. Mercy is a complicated protagonist--an ex-Army MP who is still at loose ends while she decides what she wants to do with her life after returning from Afghanistan. She has been doing some security and investigative work with the help of Elvis, her late fiance's bomb-sniffing dog, and has settled into a promising romantic relationship with Troy, a game warden, who works with his own search-and-rescue dog, Susie Bear.

Mercy's mother is driving everyone crazy as she plans her own mother's wedding, and as the big day approaches, the wedding venue's yoga teacher, Bodhi, disappears and a stranger is found skewered by a pitchfork in the goat farm where Bodhi lives. At the same time, there is some feuding going on by the families of both the bride and the groom, with serious undertones that threaten to derail the wedding altogether.

I appreciated the intricate plot and all of the well-drawn supporting characters , not to mention the exquisite suspense in the later scenes and a particularly unexpected and satisfying ending. But it is Mercy's complex character that drives the story and makes this series unique.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur for affording me the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

"The Wedding Plot" is a mystery/suspense novel. It's the fourth book in a series. You don't need to read the previous novels to understand this one, and this novel didn't spoil the whodunit of the previous novels.

The characters were engaging, complex, and acted in realistic ways. I cared about what happened to them. The mystery was complex since the cold case and the recent murders may or may not be connected. Mercy and her talented service dog, Elvis, and U.S. Game Warden Troy Warner and his search and rescue dog tracked down clues, asked good questions, and pieced together what was going on. The suspense remained high as someone was killing people (mainly ex-special forces military men), which also threatened to shut down the wedding as some attacks occurred at the Inn. There were also relationship tensions as the two extended families had their infighting and doubts about the marriage.

There was occasional use of bad language. There were no sex scenes. Overall, I'd recommend this novel to people who enjoy canine mysteries and suspense.

Mercy Carr is attending the wedding of her grandmother Patience at a resort run by her grand Aunt Pru. It is going to be a three-day extravaganza and her mother Grace who has planned everything is driving Mercy crazy. But then the spa director, Bodhi St. George disappears, and Mercy finds herself drawn into an investigation with her lover game warden Troy Warner. Then there is another murder and many of the characters from the previous three books in the series are brought into the story to some degree. Mercy also finds some disturbing information about the family Patience is marrying into. Of course, Elvis and Susie Bear the dogs play their part in protecting their humans. This is not a cozy series but there is some humor, and ex-military Mercy, and ex-military Elvis are a good team. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I read this one as a standalone but would have enjoyed it better if I had read the three previous ones in the series. I did so like the many twists and turns in it with an ending twist. A fast read that was great on a rainy yucky day. Thanks #netgalley and #stmartinspress for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.