Shannon and her team have been slaving away at the renovations for Rafe Nash's farm/conference center and now the time has come for the big event. The conference is opening with the barn raising but before the construction can be completed, Rafe's ex-partner is found stabbed to death in the midst of the construction materials. While the murder investigation goes on, so does the conference minus the barn. When shots are fired at Rafe and his guests, and another body is found, Shannon and Mac are enlisted to keep an eye out on the conference and the attendees.

I think this was the best in the series so far! Shannon and Mac have a great connection and the other characters are really fleshing out nicely.!
I've been binging on this series and have only the newest to finish but I hope there are many more! ( )

I love old houses, and the idea of a construction company that specializes in the restoration and reconstruction of old Victorians makes me happy in my soul. There's just something magical and homey in an old house. The main character in Kate Carlisle's Fixer-upper Mystery series, Shannon Hammer, breathes new life into old Victorian houses...so of course, I had to give this series a try!

Shot Through the Hearth is the 7th book in the series. Normally I don't jump into a series after so many books, but I was willing to try it to see if I would like the characters and the plot. I'm glad I did! This was an enjoyable cozy! I was easily able to figure out most of the characters and their relationships, although I think I would have understood the nuances a bit better had I started at the beginning of this series.

In Shot Through the Hearth, Hammer Construction is hired for a complicated reconstruction and new construction project. They have 8 months to refurbish a large Victorian home, and build some green eco-friendly structures, including an eco-friendly barn. Their client, Rafe Nash, made his millions in the tech industry and energy efficient inventions. He plans an eco-friendly convention just after the construction projects are finished. Shannon finds herself really liking Rafe (which is good since he is engaged to a close friend of hers), but his business partner, Dillon, is another matter altogether. Things get dicey when a body is found in the barn during the convention.....and then another body turns up. With more than 500 people in attendance at the conference and most of them quirky in one way or another.....there are a lot of suspects and lots of investigation!

For me this was a nice introduction to this series. I'm definitely going to backtrack and read the Fixer-upper Mysteries from the beginning!

**I voluntarily read an advanced review copy of this book from Berkley via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.** ( )

A good cozy series, although a bit Pollyanna-ish at times, but I love her descriptions of house renovation (I, like so many, am a HGTV junkie). This time around, she’s hired to do a major renovation for her friends Rafe and Maragold. Tech billionaire Rafe wants to save the world and he’s has a lot for Shannon and her crew to do on his property to prepare it for a conference full of inventors wanting to help make that happen, including a barn raising! It seems that murder does not leave anyone alone, even do-gooders, but the fun here is in the odd ball conference goers Shannon encounters along the way. The killer in this one was easier to spot than most, but relationship dramas made up for that. A solid entry to the series ( )

This was a timely topic for a cozy mystery. Billioniare Raphel Nash is settling in to his retirement in Lighthouse Cove, but needs an outlet for all his creative ideas and humanitarian dreams for the world. He plots out a huge conference to invite people to understand and help with Global Survival and hires Shannon to help renovate not just his home, but provide conference space, a tall building for plant life and an old fashioned barn raising. The books covers a lot of time, months in, the framework is set for the conference, which brings all sorts of new faces (and suspects) to LIghthouse Cove. When Rafe's former partner is found dead, Shannon is on the scene to try to understand the dynamics of the pair and how to clear her friend's name. There was a lot of time spent at the conference and I liked the peek into the world of wind turnbines, smart mice, living plants and how patents for new ideas are started. ( )

This is by far my least favourite book in the series. I had to force myself to finish reading the first chapter which was a lot more technical than interesting.

Usually, books in this series have the charm of a small town, with a hometown contractor renovating buildings in her town while solving crimes using her knowledge of the town and its people.

This book brought in a huge number of strangers, most of them whack-a-doodles or psychos, and put them in an essentially unfamiliar environment. There are more than enough suspects and victims to go around but nobody that you care about.

Somehow, Shannon manages to be busy enough in the book to pretty much miss seeing, or even talking to, her father for a year while a mysterious romance develops. Hard to believe when they live in the same town.

The cover is misleading. The patio shown does not belong to the protagonist but has her pets firmly in place and the fireplace, which had a corner of the hearth shot off, instead displays a huge chunk missing from the chimney.

I did not find a single typographical error in the book which is becoming more rare so kudos to the proof-readers. ( )