It was supposed to a staged murder mystery at a B&B, but this one ended up with a real dead person. When the owner of the B&B is accused, Lyla and her Jane Doe book club set out to prove her innocence. Then another of the group is targeted, first someone tries to destroy her career as a police officer, and then actually seems intent on really destroying her life. And she isn’t the only one in danger. It’s quite an exciting mystery, with Lyla trying to suss out the murderer without putting anyone in danger. But she may just have to use one of her friends for bait, anyway. Well written, this series is somewhat more suspenseful than the average cozy. Lyla is coming into her own as a gun carrying private eye. The characters are intriguing, and while there is some romance in the everyday lives of some of the characters, Lyla has decided that she is just fine being single, and if she never meets “Mr. Right,” she is okay with that. How refreshing! ( )

Lyla Moody is a PI in training at her uncle's business, Moody Investigations. She is also a member of the Jane Does Book Club, who read a different book each week and then meet to discuss it. But this evening the club is hosting a Halloween party based on Agatha Christie's A Murder Is Announced, and it's themed right down to costumes from the 1950s. When the lights go out, Lyla hears four shots, not three, and when they come on again, she spies Patricia Richardson dying from a gunshot wound. She'd seen Patricia threaten her cousin Elaine Morgan earlier, with a gun in her hand. But now -- this death is definitely a real murder, and the person who is running the investigation is Rosa Landry, because her boss is on his honeymoon.

But all is not what it seems, not even in Lyla's personal life. And she has to decide how to solve the murder and keep Rosa out of harm's way, especially when it's apparent she's targeted as a future victim. Using Rosa as bait, she only hopes she'll be able to save her life -- and maybe her own, too...

This is the third book in the series, and unfortunately, it didn't resonate with me at all. I didn't really care for Lyla this time out; she seemed harder and not as bright as in the last two books. I also didn't understand where the marriage of Courtney and Quinn came in when they weren't even dating in the last book. How much time did we lose between the two, and why wasn't this explained?

There were just too many characters this time around, and I have a hard time believing that the police will involve a civilian in their 'stings.' Nothing like getting sued by the family if something goes wrong. Although the involvement of Rosa was a nice touch, she too seemed a bit timid for a police officer, and never really managed to take charge of her investigation.

Then there is Lyla's personal life which made me say 'what???'

To see the rest of this which is a spoiler, please check here: https://joannesbooks.blogspot.com/2022/08/crime-for-books-jane-doe-mystery-book-...

But then the plot got confusing. There were too many threads and it took too long to put them together, and even if you did, there was still something else going on. By the time I got to the end I really didn't care anymore. I absolutely loved the first two books in this series, but this one was definitely missing something, and when it ended, I was left feeling there should have been more.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review. ( )

Georgia, family-dynamics, family, friendship, private-investigators, small-town, small-business, southern, amateur-sleuth, cozy-mystery, greed, family-drama, murder, murder-investigation, lawyers, law-enforcement, madness*****

Lyla works for her uncle in his PI office, lives alone because she doesn't care to live with her wealthy dysfunctional parents (and her fun Grandmother), belongs to a book club devoted to solving fictional crimes and works on cold cases for fun.
A murder mystery event at a Bed & Breakfast in town in a small southern town hosted by the book club dedicated to solving a particular type of cold case. What could go wrong?
The publisher's blurb sets the hook, but it's the realistic characters and excellent sleuthing that kept my nose in the book. A very good read!
I requested and received a free temporary e-book copy from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )