Mainely Mysteries: Three Romance Mysteries

Susan Page Davis and Megan Elaine Davis
Barbour Publishing (2010)
ISBN 9781602604919
Reviewed by Tracey Rock for Reader Views (04/10)


Book 1: It’s been seven years since Emily Gray has seen her hometown Baxter, Maine.  Going to college and having a successful journalism career in Connecticut was more than enough of a reason to keep her away.  This trip to Baxter, so she thought, would be her last and only trip since her youth.  She would be coming back for two weeks - just long enough to put her mother’s cottage on the market to sell.  Little did she realize that she would run into her high-school sweetheart Nate Holman, working at the local emporium.  As Emily is assisting Nate with a grocery delivery, the two of them discover the body of long time resident, Henry Derbin.  The investigative journalist in Emily could not resist the need to stay in Baxter to help solve his murder.   Was she here for the mysteries and her career or is it for Nate? 

Book 2: Solving crimes and writing for the local newspaper now seem a comfort and a perfect way of life for Emily.  Emily and Nate become engaged and are planning their wedding.  Mystery and suspense begin when one of their friends, Jeff Lewis, is accused of murder.  Through their investigation to prove his innocence, they learn of a mysterious legend of a lumber baron and his missing treasure.  Could this be what is behind the murders that continue in the town of Baxter? 

Book 3: The mystery begins early in this book with Emily going to interview long time resident Stella Lessard and finds her dead. A search for Stella’s heir brings about two women with the exact same birth certificates both claiming to be Stella’s granddaughter. Who is the rightful heir?  Once it is discovered that Stella was murdered, it make this mystery even more suspenseful.

“Mainely Mysteries” is a trilogy but it could have easily been written in one book.  Many of the details, throughout all three stories, seemed a bit dull and boring which made this a difficult read.  The various “who-done-it” plots managed to hold my interest just long enough to get through all three books, but I thought the romance part was very light, which could be attributed to the fact that this is a Christian-based book.  I believe the writers tried a bit too hard to get the point across that their main character is a Christian.  I would not recommend this book for the mainstream population; however, I do think that young Christian adults looking for a Christian-suspense mystery will find this book satisfactory, at best.  If you are looking for more than that, then this book comes up short.

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