An Unfinished Murder by Jude Deveraux
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
An Unfinished Murder is the 5th-book in the Medlar Mystery series by veteran author, Jude Deveraux.
This is the 2nd-book I’ve read from this series, the other being A Forgotten Murder, the 3rd-book in the series. I enjoyed it a lot and hope to eventually get to them all.
This series follows Romance novelist, Sara Medlar, who along with her niece, Kate, and their friend, Jack, tend to solve a lot of mysteries.
Like many other amateur sleuths before them, this trio seems to be at the right place, at the right time, when it comes to mysteries, particularly murder mysteries.
At this point, the trio has built up quite a bit of a reputation for themselves due to their superior sleuthing skills. Now known as the Medlar Three, in their small town of Lachlan, Florida, there’s no case they’re afraid to tackle.
This latest mystery arises after Kate, a real estate agent, is given a listing for the storied Lachlan House, a local property with a dark past. Alarm bells may ring, but it’s a substantial listing, one she has no intention of turning down.
Their first time visiting the property, the trio make a stark discovery, an actual skeleton in the closet. This one dressed in a rotting tuxedo. It’s this shocking moment that causes Kate to realize, she did spend some time there as a child.
This skeleton seems to have connections to her father, and it makes Kate wonder if the childhood she can’t remember may be one she’d rather not anyway.
As Sara, Kate and Jack dive deeper into the skeleton’s history, they discover it was a man who was last seen attending a lavish party at the Lachlan House in the 90s. Apparently, he had many enemies and most of them were in attendance that very night.
With multiple motives and a suspect list as long as the party’s guest list, the Medlar Three are determined to find the culprit and put an end to this decades long mystery.
I listened to this one on audio recently while embarking on a solo road trip. It was a great way to pass the hours and kept me fully-entertained while tackling Boston traffic.
I found it to be a little convoluted at times, with all the characters involved, some were hard to keep straight, but it could have just been my frazzled vacation brain.
I liked how the Medlar Three were pulled into the mystery at Lachlan House. It made sense to me how urgently they would want to solve it.
I also found their method, sort of recreating that decades ago lavish party, to be such a fun idea. The cast eventually assembled was vast and quite interesting. The culprit really could have been any of them.
Deveraux embraces the classic Cozy Mystery format that I tend to be drawn to and find to be so comforting. This type of book with keep you engaged, and on your toes, without requiring every single brain cell in your head.
This has inspired me to hunt down the rest of these books, because I do love this trio: Sara, Kate and Jack. I need more cases to solve with them.
As with many Adult Cozy Mystery series, these don’t necessarily need to be read in publication order. Clearly, I’m not reading them that way and I’ve never felt lost, or like I wish I had more information.
From the synopsis, this could be the final intended book in this series, which makes me sad, but on the bright side, I still have three more to go, which I’m excited for.
I’d recommend this to any Cozy Mystery fan, particularly if you enjoy friends, or family, solving mysteries together.
Thank you to the publisher, MIRA, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m stoked to wrap-up the rest of the published books in this series!
