Marg McAlister

Cozy mysteries can too often be so light that they’re duller than dirt, but this novella length start to a series — they all appear to be around the same length — is quite charming and fun. The mystery is very light indeed, involving a con-man rather than a killer, but not having a murder but something of this nature for Georgie to solve — sometimes with the aid of her gypsy grandmother’s crystal ball — is the oeuvre of this series I think, and it actually works. Why it does so is the quick pace and the extremely likable Georgie.

Georgie is competing with her brother to run a new division of their father’s motor home business featuring retro, gypsy style caravans. Since Georgie is into vintage, and has one of the caravans herself, she’s itching to win the contest her father has set up and sell the most trailers. Reluctantly she begins incorporating readings to attract more potential buyers at the RV shows she travels to, and discovers she indeed does have the “gift” that her grandmother had. It leads to her helping a woman in a quandary over a potential marriage proposal. This leads to a light, cozy-type mystery, albeit a super light and rather pedestrian one.

While it might sound lame, this is mystery fluff done to perfection. The narrative is so engaging, in fact, the mystery is secondary, because it is loaded with atmosphere and charm. When I’m writing something emotionally draining and complex, something like this can be a wonderful distraction. I don’t have to think a lot, and can just enjoy the read. Because I loved the character and the premise, I loved this one. I’ll be picking up more and hope the same tone and atmosphere continue, so I’ll have another option when I need something light and fun, and just engaging enough to be a delightful distraction. Definitely fluff, but enjoyable fluff.… (mehr)

The second Cozy Caravan Mystery is light and fun and friendly, with just a touch of mystery — though not of the dead body variety — to make this a pleasant read. It’s fluff, even for a cozy mystery, but what separates this series is a very likable main protagonist in Georgie, and the deliberate effort of the author to keep this at novella length. Most cozy mysteries go on far too long, and if you’re just reading them as a breather from darker or more substantial fiction, as I do on occasion, it’s easy to become bored. Marg McAlister seems to have found just the right length and just the right atmosphere to prevent that from happening.

In the second entry, the sixth sense that Georgie has inherited from her great-grandmother which allows her to use her crystal ball to help people in trouble — where the mystery always comes into play — draws her and her gypsy caravan toward Los Angeles. Having formed CBI — Crystal Ball Investigations — with her friends help, she quickly becomes involved in a case while attending the retro caravan rally. While her real job hawking retro caravans is ongoing, hidden motives and a few more serious issues cloud the crystal ball when a case concerning who traded business secrets turns into something more.

Scott is around, as is Georgie’s annoying brother Jerry, and his delightful girlfriend, Tammy. The gypsy caravan angle, Georgie’s competition with her brother, the self-deprecating CBI stuff, and a light mystery offer a fun if brief respite from heavier stuff, making this a nice cozy.… (mehr)

After reading a couple of books in this series — the first two entries, I believe — as a break or tweener between more substantial offerings, I chose this one at random because of the setting. Georgie is on the California coast. A 1960s style beach party rally seems the perfect fit for the vintage trailers Georgie sells to those nostalgic for everything retro. Her reputation for helping others through the use of her crystal ball has followed her to California, however, and soon threatens to interfere with the week of fun she has planned with Tammy and Layla.

A woman named Rosemary wants Georgie to help her boyfriend find his daughter. Helping Rosmary locate the little girl named Marylou is very serious business, because her natural mother may have abducted her. Complicating matters is the arrival of the flashy and irritating Jaxx, the gorgeous but shallow news reporter Georgie helped in a prior entry in the series. At first, Jaxx is simply trying to rope Georgie into checking out a haunted house. While she attempts to cajole Georgie into her scheme, however, she goes after Georgie’s brother romantically. This doesn’t sit well with Georgie, who is hoping Tammy will become her new sister-in-law.

The relationships of Tammy and Jerry, and Layla and Seth take a huge step forward in the ninth entry, as the cozy mystery portion of the story takes a very serious turn. Georgie eventually realizes things may not be as they seem, and she may be placing the little girl in greater danger. A warning about social media and how it can be misused is woven into the story.

The upsides to this entry are the likable Georgie, a resolution to the cozy mystery which has just a touch of depth, and a fun ending on the beach we’ve been waiting for. The downsides are Georgie’s brother Jerry, who grates on the reader because of the unrealistic way he’s drawn — everything he does screams jerk, yet the author continually brings it back around to him not being “so” bad — and more chick-lit silliness than I recall in the other two entries I enjoyed. Because of the setting, I expected this to be at least as good as the first two, but it fell just short for me. Fluff or an enjoyable light cozy is nice once in a while as a break for me, and I’ve found this series a nice diversion a couple of times. I just felt it crossed the line into frivolous a few times in this one.

Because they creep into every book, both Independent and Mainstream, I rarely mention typos and related problems unless it becomes an issue while I’m reading. This one had a couple of glaring issues which should have been caught. I could tell a couple of times where the author had rewritten a sentence and not reread it to make sure it read well, or made sense:

“On the table, next to the hurricane lantern, there was red vintage radio and some artfully displayed magazines featuring vintage magazines.”

If it had been a longer work, perhaps it wouldn’t have warranted a mention, but at novelette-novella length, and it being published in 2015, one would think that if it hadn’t been caught initially — which is completely understandable - someone would have caught it by now and corrected it. Mine is the Kindle version, so I can’t speak to the paperback. Kindle is a different critter, and sometimes an incorrect file gets uploaded. Overall, I found Good Vibrations diverting, but a bit sillier in spots than I could take. I might try A Rocking Good Christmas entry later on this year, so I’m definitely not put off, just a teeny bit disappointed I didn’t like this one as much as I expected. Still a four star, because I’m not the audience at which the book is aimed, who will probably enjoy the spots I found eye-rolling.… (mehr)