Odelia Grey's mother, Grace, is visiting and Odelia is doing her best to be gracious. Since Grace abandoned Odelia when she was 16 there is a lot of history to overcome. Greg's cousin, Ina, goes to abandoned storage lockers to buy things for the second-hand shop she runs with her husband, Tom. Grace is an avid TV fan of the "storage wars" type shows and begs Odelia to tag along with Ina. Odelia and Greg's mother, Renee, agree that it might be fun and so set out to join Ina at a local storage business.

Thus starts the story that winds through multiple second-hand stores, a few storage businesses, a murder or three and the hunt for the murderer. Odelia pulls into the hunt husband Greg, mother Grace and even mother-in-law Renee before all is finished.

I love the way the characters grow and change in this series. Odelia is a confidant woman but she depends on Greg in many ways. Her "issues" with her mother are a place for conflict and also for growth.

This is a series I love to read and hope that there is more coming, soon. ( )

4 STARS

This is my first Odelia Grey Mystery but hopefully not my last. It kept me guessing till the end. Easy to read and follow. Does make me curious to read previous books but definitely not needed. The regular cast of characters are well developed. As a middle age heavyset woman it is fun to see one as a lead. Her husband is in a wheel chair but it does not stop him much at all.

The plot was laid out step by step as they found different clues and reasoned out what was going on. That at the end it all fit and made perfect sense. Odelia, her mom Grace, her mother-in-law Renee and her husband's cousin Ina were all at a auction of storage units. Ina invited them but one of the storage units when unlocked they found Ina's husband dead inside sitting in a chair.

Ina was arrested because she had in her purse a unregistered handgun and no permit. Ina is not talking to even her lawyer. Greg her cousin wants to help find the real killer and get his cousin out of jail.

Ina is a heavyset women who keeps having dead bodies turn up around her. She works for a lawyer and sometimes works from her home. Her mother came to visit for Thanksgiving and is staying longer. Her husband Greg has a shop. He does not like her finding dead bodies all the time. Ina is always curious and sticks her nose into solving the cases. This time Greg likes her to jump into the case.

The cops don't like her sticking her nose in them. One of the detectives on the case used to be partners with Odelia's friend. She warns her off when she sees her at the storage unit. But when Odelia calls the police with information she is taken serious but told again to stay out of their business. Unless they want her to do something for them.

Odelia has a smart mouth sometimes. She does not like to be told that she and her mom are alike in some ways. Grace finds that she wants to figure out what is going on too and even threatens Odelia if she leaves her home she will call a cab and follow her own leads too.

This is a very modern up to date mystery with ipads, storage wars, lunch trucks with fancier food. It has a real modern feel to it.
I would love to read more of Sue Ann Jaffarian novels in the future especially Odelia Grey Mystery.

I was given this ebook to read and asked in return to give honest review of it when finished by Netgalley and Midnight Ink.
12/08/2013 PUB Midnight Ink ( )

Coming December 8th, the 8th (grin) in this series packs a punch! I love a good cozy mystery, and even more a cozy full of real people! What a great read!

A new cozy series must read!! Now to get all the rest!! This is book No.8 and I fell into this without reading any of the others without any problems. I am truly and madly in love with Odelia and her mother, and her husband and the animals! What a hoot! Oh dear, that means I need the rest of them, all seven. I bet I could spend a week reading these back to back without blinking an eye.. You know I have to laugh, there have been many series I have fallen into because I found a copy at a local thrift store... so the basis for this mystery and how I fell into this read :) but I digress!

I am a huge cozy mystery fan but I find many of them create clues that are much to obvious. Miss Jaffarian was able to completely blindside me for much of the book and I rate a mystery on a scale from 1-10 on the obvious scale and this one rates about an 8.5 difficulty, which is pretty dang good! Honestly she totally had me by the toe for most of it! And the end, Oh me oh my! I cannot say much!

As usual with a cozy she sticks her nose where it does not belong and the cops do not like it. She has a nemesis, of course. And one of them is, or was, her mother. Also, this is not a pretty little HOT thing, she is pretty but she is not little. She is just find for her wonderful and loving hubby Greg, she occasionally gives herself a hard time about her weight but at the same time has no problem eating food and enjoying it. Hats off to Odelia! I am going to have to comeback and revisit her with a recipe in honor of this book. Who knows, maybe I can get the author to let me interview her!
Another nice thing, I usually have issues when they use a lot of name brand tech, this was done so well that I did not even blink. It won't be a problem with dating it when someone reads it decades from now, just look at Miss Marple! I had the chuckle a bit with the use of sockpuppet reviews I would suggest perhaps a few authors watch out because some folks may take this to heart of you pull these dirty tricks *mischievous grin*

Also, if Odelia's mom can blog *coughing* ohhh mother, get your act together and start reviewing and blogging all your books! Where do you guys think I got the bug to read from anyway? At least these kinds of books! ( )

I love Odelia Grey and wait not-so-patiently for every new volume in this fun, fast-paced series. In Secondhand Stiff, Odelia Grey is back in full-figured form--and with her mother in tow. I loved the interplay between Odelia and her mom as well as the reappearance of Greg and some of the my other favorite characters. Having this escapade build around the secondhand market was an extra-fun bonus. A great read! ( )