Jaymie Leighton collects vintage kitchenware and cookbooks
in the small town
of Queensville, where everyone knows everyone, and most of
the townspeople
have lived there since childhood. Jaymie and Kathy Cooper
were best friends
in high school, but a couple of decades have passed since
then, and Kathy has
refused to speak to Jaymie since then. Jaymie has no idea
what caused the rift
and when she tries to ask Kathy about it, she gets the cold
shoulder. After a
major blow-up as the town prepares for the Fourth of July
festival, Jaymie
decides that she's going to confront Kathy and try to clear
the air once and
for all.
However, she never gets that opportunity. After the
festivities end, Jaymie
finds Kathy's body by the park washrooms. Unfortunately,
Kathy was killed
with Jaymie's Depression-era glass bowl. As everyone in
town knows that
Kathy and Jaymie had been feuding for years, Jaymie becomes
a natural
suspect, especially since her fingerprints are all over the
bowl and they
recently had another spat.
Jaymie knows she didn't kill Kathy, but what she doesn't
know is whether whoever
used her bowl to kill Kathy did so as to intentionally set
her up. Jaymie decides to
quietly investigate Kathy's death, feeling guilty that so
many years have gone
by since they were friends, but also wanting to ensure that
the right culprit is
caught. Since Jaymie isn't the only person that Kathy had
been feuding with,
there are suspects aplenty -- including Kathy's own sister,
with whom Kathy
had been having a custody fight (the sister had been an
unfit parent until
recently).
The plot was fun and moved at a good pace, mostly following
Jaymie's actions
as she investigated the mystery. There really was
discernible subplot, which
was fine as there so many suspects and motives that Jaymie
tracked down as
she kept her business running. The characters in the book
were all fun to get
to know, especially Jaymie's friend Valetta who is pretty
much the only person
who stands behind the person who is arrested for Kathy's
murder.
Jaymie is a great character, too. Her family is
interesting, as is her
relationship with the man she is dating. She has a little
bit of a tendency to
be pessimistic about things, but that may have also been
because of the
content of this particular mystery. I would be willing to
see what she's like in
another book before saying that it's a character flaw.
Overall, BOWLED OVER is a fun
book with a likable protagonist.
Vintage kitchenware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton
has been estranged from her high school best friend Kathy
Cooper since they were teenagers, but she never knew what
turned Kathy against her. After fireworks at a Fourth of
July picnic, Jaymie discovers the body of her former friend
in the park. On the ground nearby is Jaymie’s own
Depression-era glass bowl, broken in two.
With her fingerprints all over the bowl and a troubled
history with the victim, Jaymie suddenly finds herself at
the top of the list of suspects. Did the killer intend to
frame her for the murder? If so, she is ready to mix it up,
because solving crimes is vintage Jaymie Leighton…
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