Maddie and David are spending Christmas at a country hacienda with an old school friend. She knows her friend's husband has been ill and that things aren't all wine and roses at the hacienda but Maddie is shocked when she arrives and finds an entire family crushed under the thumb of a nasty patriarch. But someone fought back and when the patriarch is found dead, which of the downtrodden relatives or guests was the guilty party?

I have really enjoyed this series, there aren't many historical cozies and cozies set in New Mexico are rare. This series is a fun and interesting read, Maddie is darling, David is the perfect guy for her. In this book I really missed Maddie's house and Juanita and her children. She has such a cozy, tidy life and the life she stepped into in this book was much more dramatic and tumultuous, which made for an exciting read.

This series is a must-read for anyone interested in historical cozies or cozies set in the southwest.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

A sweet, fizzy Christmas cozy crime. I enjoyed the 1920s Santa Fe setting (if anything, I'd have liked more to be made of this) and the dash of romance. I haven't read earlier books in the series, but it didn't matter - it was easy to go with the flow.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.

This latest book in the excellent, Santa Fe-set mystery series is as good as its predecessors, if not better. Maddie and her fiancé join an old school friend of Maddie’s at the family home outside Santa Fe for Christmas, and end snowed in with murder, hidden affairs, and more intrigue. The setting makes it feel like a Southwestern manor house mystery, complete with unpleasant patriarchs, scheming relatives, and rumors of ghosts. The mystery is excellent, and the characters and setting are very well done and really add to the story. Big personal developments are also in store for the main characters. I highly recommend the whole series if you like historical mysteries. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy. All views are entirely my own.

In the latest entry in the Santa Fe Murder series, Maddie runs into an old school friend in Santa Fe, who has moved with her husband to her husband's family home on a remote ranch. Maddie's friend asks her to join the family at the ranch for Christmas, accompanied by Maddie's fiance, Dr. David Cole. Of course the family is unhappy, with an overbearing patriarch making everyone's lives miserable. No surprise that Maddie finds him one morning, murdered, and that no one seems to be very sad about it.

Maddie and David and their artist friend Gunther (also at the ranch trying to write a novel in the quiet surroundings) are delightful well-drawn characters, and the members of the family all have their motives and quirks. Hopefully some of them become recurring characters. The setting of Santa Fe in the 1920s is fascinating and a reminder of just how remote it was at that time. The book could probably be read as a standalone, since it's removed from the usual setting of Amanda Allen's series, but the development of Maddie and David's relationship is fun to follow, so recommend reading all of the books. Thanks to Severn House and NetGalley for the ARC.

I love the setting of these books.

Santa Fe IS a magical environment and the author does a great job using her protagonist as the medium for conveying that.
Through Maddie’s artist eyes, and through her experience settling in to a new part of the country, this series gives the reader that same sense of joy and wonder.

I also love the family our protagonist has built in her new town… the books convey a sense of how important environment is to our happiness and well-being, but also the importance of friends and family ( whether “ real” or selected).

Netgalley provided me a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a candid r3view.

Are you on the hunt for the next great murder mystery? Murder at the Hacienda should be next on your to be read pile.