A HUSH AT MIDNIGHT
By Marlene M. Bell
Cozy Mystery / Small Town Mystery
Publisher: Ewephoric
Pages: 368
Publication Date: September 5, 2024
A manipulator.
A fatal plan for revenge.
Award-winning author of the Annalisse series, Marlene M. Bell, brings distant friends together in the rural South only to have one of them become the victim of a brutal crime of passion.
Once celebrated for her show-stopping pastries and irresistible desserts, former celebrity chef Laura Harris is now making headlines for a far darker reason.
Laura has been accused of murder.
How could this petite chef have brutally smothered the beloved small-town matriarch, World War II ferry pilot veteran, Hattie Stenburg? Hattie wasn’t just a pillar of the community; she was Laura’s confidant and mentor. The shocking twist? Hattie’s will contained recent changes, bypassing next-of kin and leaving her entire fortune and historic estate to Laura.
As Laura scrambles to clear her name, she uncovers sinister secrets lurking beneath the town’s idyllic surface. The real murderer is always one step ahead, leaving taunting clues and threatening Laura to leave Texas—or face deadly consequences. With time not a luxury, Laura must untangle the web of deceit before the killer makes her the next victim.
In A Hush at Midnight, Marlene M. Bell twists an amateur sleuth crime mystery into a race against the clock to solve her mentor’s murder.
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Marlene M. Bell is an award-winning author of the Annalisse romantic suspense series. She’s also an acclaimed artist and photographer using her pictures for descriptive prose that eventually lands in her mysteries. Marlene lives with her husband of 42 years on their East Texas ranch with numerous sheep. When she’s not writing, drawing or painting, she is shepherdess to their Katahdin hair sheep and ranch kitties.
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A Hush at Midnight by Marlene M. Bell is a delightful cozy mystery that is perfect for a chilly winter afternoon, a hot summer night, and every season in between. Marlene delivers yet another story filled with deception, danger, and duplicity. And murder, of course.
The main character, Laura Harris, can be difficult to pin down at first because while she is around forty years old, she sometimes slips into a level of impetuosity that is often found in a younger and more immature character. With that said, Laura does deserve happiness and seeks answers and justice for the murder of Hattie Stenburg, her long-time, elderly, and very wealthy friend who had lived a rich and colorful life but still had so much more to give.
A Hush at Midnight offers plenty of suspects and an abundance of red herrings that will keep readers on their toes. While some elements and even a few characters seem unrelated to the overall mystery, a deeper dive shows that they are indeed relevant as foils and as character motifs. Lucas and Connie are perfect examples of those vengeful people we often encounter who are just plain weird and often hide their true selves behind lies or even within a faux retro diner that perfectly imitates a certain character’s false personality. Grab a copy of A Hush at Midnight and let me know if you see that comparison too.
Laura has her work cut out for her because the local Stenberg police and other officials treat her like a meddler and a nuisance. When she meets Hattie’s handsome lawyer, Brent Hill, Laura immediately tumbles headlong into infatuation (impetuosity at its finest). While Hattie is murdered early in the story, she takes center stage and is arguably the most exciting. She was no doubt a force to be reckoned with throughout her entire life. Moon Pie “Moonie” the corgi is all over the place and will either annoy you or melt your heart, or maybe both. What a canine!
The murder takes place at Hattie’s estate in the fictional Stenburg, Texas, which is close to Austin and a couple of hours from the fictional Coldspell, which is where Laura lives and works as an esteemed pastry chef. Needless to say, Laura is always on the move between Stenburg and Coldspell, with her devoted dad and her friend Duska adding even more dynamic characterization into the mix.
The overall story is intriguing and fun; however, another round of editing would banish any grammatical errors and fill in any storyline gaps even more. The pace is fast, and the mystery is mystifying. Who has motive and means to kill Hattie? Apparently, everyone does, including Laura. But someone clearly wants Laura out of the picture; therefore, the plot continues to thicken with each chapter. It is anyone’s guess because so many characters are shifty.
Take a break and settle into this cozy mystery that will whisk you away to small-town Texas, where murder, mayhem, and just deserts (and maybe even a few decadent desserts) are always on the menu.
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