Review and Giveaway: Trick or Deceit

Trick or Deceit (Celebration Bay Mystery - Book 4) by Shelley Freydont

Publication Date: 09/01/2015
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley Prime Crime
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 304
ISBN-10: 0425281477
ISBN-13: 978-0425281475

(Received for an honest review from Berkley Prime Crime)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, itunes

Shelley Freydont on the WEB: Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads

Books in the series:

Celebration Bay Mystery
1. Foul Play at the Fair 
2. Silent Knife 
3. Independence Slay 
4. Trick or Deceit 
Cold Turkey 
Trawling for Trouble 

Coverart: Click the image for a larger, clearer view of the covers in this series.

Synopsis:

The author of Independence Slay invites readers back to Celebration Bay for Halloween festivities with more tricks than treats…

This October in Celebration Bay, you can’t swing a black cat without hitting a haunted house. There are three finalists in the contest for the town’s official Haunted House, and ten thousand dollars will go to the winner, with the rest of the contributions and proceeds funding a new community center. Event coordinator Liv Montgomery has invited her friend Jonathan Preston, the debonair CEO of a philanthropic organization, hoping he will award a grant to the center.

But after the Museum of Yankee Horrors wins first place, the transformed Victorian boarding house is vandalized ... and among scattered mannequins of Hester Prynne, Lizzie Borden, and the Headless Horseman, a real dead body is found—one of the contest judges. Now in addition to playing host to Jon, Liv has to play detective and coordinate the clues to unmask a self-appointed judge, jury, and executioner.

Thoughts:

Shelley Freydont continues the Celebration Bay mystery series with her latest book, Trick or Deceit. Halloween is the perfect setting for murder! Readers who are looking for a great cozy for the fall season will love this one. With everything from haunted houses and witches to preachers and town skeletons in the closet, this book has it all. Freydont's trademark quirky characters and the small town setting give this one all the makings for one haunted read...

What I liked:

Halloween was always a favorite holiday of mine for more than one reason. Candy, candy and more candy, but more importantly getting to transform myself into a character from my favorite books. I took it seriously when it came to celebrating the season. I had a party once and even made my own graveyard with the names and funny epitaphs for my friends. So when I found out this cozy had a Halloween theme I was totally on board. Celebration Bay was the perfect place for this theme. This small town goes all out when it comes to holidays and I was excited to see how they decked out for the scariest of them all. 

The haunted house competition was a brilliant idea. I loved reading about the entries and how each person that entered interpreted it differently. The $10,000 prize certainly made things a little intense and somebody was a very sore loser. The mystery aspects of this one centered around the murder of one of the judges. Freydont gave readers plenty of suspects and the motive was pretty obvious, or was it? I thought the clues were plentiful and the red herrings were not too far out of the realm of possibility. Freydont did a great job with the Halloween theme and the murder mystery.

Liv Montgomery, the heroine of the series and Celebration Bay's event coordinator is a perfect amateur sleuth. Celebration Bay is looking to get a grant to build a new community center and it's up to Liv to figure out the clues to this murder before a New York backer comes in. I liked that Liv is curious by nature but not necessarily foolhardy or reckless in her investigations. She is a pretty logical thinker and I like that about her. The other secondary characters in the book, add so much to each story. They are well written and always provide a different perspective on each mystery. Great characters all around. 

What I Didn't Like:

There has been a lot of tension between Liv and Chaz for awhile now. They seem to be dragging their feet about whether or not they want to be a couple or not and that's getting a little frustrating, since this is Book 4 in the series. I want them to just pull the trigger so to speak, but that may just be a pet peeve of my own.

Bottom Line:

This was a good cozy for the season. Halloween is right around the corner and this one really hits the spot of those of us readers who like the creepy factor when it comes to murder. The mystery was believable and not to easy to figure out. The motive seems clear, but there are a lot of factors in this one. Liv is once again a great sleuth and seems to have settled into her role as event coordinator. She and Chaz need to figure it out though! LOL... A very good addition to the series!

Trick or Deceit is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!

About the Author:

Shelley Freydont is the author of the Celebration Bay mysteries, including Foul Play at the Fair, Silent Knife, Independence Slay and the novella Trawling for Trouble, as well as the Katie McDonald Sudoku mysteries and the Lindy Haggerty Mysteries, and her historical novel A Gilded Grave is the first in a new Newport Gilded Age Mystery series. Under the name Shelley Noble, she is the author of Beach Colors and Stargazey Point. Her books have been translated into seven languages.

Giveaway Details:

The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of Trick or Deceit by Shelley Freydont.

~ You must be an email subscriber to participate.
~ US Addresses only.
~ The deadline to enter this giveaway is Midnight EST, September 22nd.

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