The wedding plot

Review by Booklist Review

Mercy Carr, former U.S. Army MP in Afghanistan and sometime amateur sleuth, returns in another charmingly madcap adventure that encompasses everything from romance and family dynamics to missing persons and murder--and let's not forget goats and gourmet cheese-making. Mercy's grandmother, Patience, is getting married at the exclusive Lady's Slipper Estate in Vermont, and Mercy's mother, Grace, and Aunt Prudence are planning the wedding. Patience is marrying millionaire Claude Renault, and Grace and Prudence are determined to make the event something special. So when the "director of well-being" at the Lady's Slipper, Bodhi St. George, disappears just before the wedding, it's a calamity--he was supposed to give massages and otherwise ensure the, yes, well-being of the wedding guests. Of course, Mercy can't help but get involved in finding St. George, but her search uncovers more than she bargained for: St. George isn't who he claimed he was, and finding his real identity involves rogue Special Service soldiers, a decades-old murder, and a family torn apart by greed. This offbeat tale will appeal to a wide range of mystery readers.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Disaster looms over Vermont's five-star Lady's Slipper Inn just days before Mercy Carr's grandmother Patience's wedding, in Munier's enjoyable fourth mystery featuring the former MP and part-time investigator (after 2021's The Hiding Place). Family tensions flare when free-spirited Aunt Verity arrives in time to upset both the event's carefully laid plans and her sister, Grace. Groom Claude Renault, meanwhile, has his share of domestic troubles with his two grown sons at each other's throats over the family's business empire. Matters go from bad to worse when Mercy and her Malinois shepherd, Elvis, searching for the inn's missing spa director, Bodhi St. George, discover a stranger's body on a nearby goat farm. When a wounded St. George turns up at the hospital and later escapes, and a missing girl's remains and another body are discovered at the farm, Mercy and Elvis--with the aid of her boyfriend, game warden Troy Warner, and his dog, Susie Bear--must track down the killer before the wedding celebration descends into a funeral. Distinctive characters make up for the book's convoluted second half in which too much goes on. Still, this is fine escapist fare for a hot summer day. (July)

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Review by Library Journal Review

The fourth "Mercy Carr" mystery (following The Hiding Place) is a complex, action-packed page-turner with several subplots skillfully resolved. As the wedding of Mercy's grandmother nears, Bodhi St. George, the ex-special ops director of the inn where the nuptials will take place, disappears. While searching for Bodhi at his farm, former military policewoman Mercy and her retired bomb-sniffing dog Elvis discover a body in the goat barn, stabbed through the heart with a pitchfork. Mercy calls in her boyfriend, Troy Warner, a Vermont game warden, along with his search-and-rescue dog, Susie Bear. Bodhi reappears, and Mercy hopes to question him. But the former soldier disappears repeatedly, even from his hospital bed. Instead, it's Mercy who ends up injured. Despite her injuries, she's determined to find out why former special ops soldiers are showing up before the wedding. However, the true danger might lie with the troubles that erupt when two families gather for a wedding. VERDICT Fans will appreciate the return of beloved characters, including the dogs. Chapter headings, quotes about love, are appropriate and unusual in a masterly story with a climatic wedding scene.--Lesa Holstine

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