#TuesdayBookBlog The Dying Five (A Hospice Heroes Mystery Book 1) by Jennifer Wright-Berryman

Hi, all:

I bring you another book (or I should say, a series, as I’m already reading the second book that is due for publication in the next few days) from Rosie’s Book Review Team. I think many of you will like this one.

The Dying Five. A Hospice Heroes Mystery by Jennifer Wright-Berryman

The Dying Five. A Hospice Heroes Mystery by Jennifer Wright-Berryman

Murder and conspiracy are exactly what the doctor ordered, if you ask The Dying Five. Who says you can’t solve crime with terminal illnesses?

When Eric Graham, the CEO of an Indianapolis start-up company is gunned down on his porch after a dinner party, a group of hospice heroes and their social worker go undercover to unravel the mystery. Investigating Eric’s death exposes a scheme of national proportions and tangles The Dying Five in a web of greed, power, and peril. With the life clock ticking, they dance with danger in between naps and nursing visits.

Not everyone in The Dying Five is who they seem to be, and the secrets of some members could end the bond the group has worked hard to build. Their friendship fate hangs in the balance as they travel from their suburban spy lair to the rolling hills of southern Indiana, collecting clues along the way. As they’re closing in on Eric’s killer, another employee from the start-up company is murdered. The Dying Five are certain they can unmask one killer, but can they catch two?

About the author:

Believing in yourself and what is possible at any stage of life is what my writing is all about. The resilience of the human spirit despite life’s challenges is the message I’m sending. Join my characters as they take you on an adventure- they love you for who you are, the whole you, no matter what.

You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

https://jenniferwrightberryman.com

My review:

I write this review as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team (author, check here if you are interested in getting your book reviewed) and thank her and the author for this opportunity.

I have mixed feelings about cozy mysteries. In theory, they should work well for me (I love mysteries and I’m a big reader of thrillers, police procedurals, and all kinds of crime novels, and I am also fond of quirky characters), but that has not always been my experience. Sometimes the mystery and the investigation side of the story is too simple or tests too much my suspension of disbelief, and others, the characters aren’t sufficiently well-drawn or interesting to pull me in. So, I approached this new series with caution, although the premise made me curious: a group of people who are all facing terminal illnesses get together to solve crimes. What could go wrong?

As the title indicates, the five (at least to begin with, and I’ll try not to reveal any major spoilers) people are all under hospice care, and the way the story is told pulled me in from the beginning. The “leader” of the group is writing the story to the “next leader” so s/he is aware of what has happened before and they can carry on adding to the history of the group. As the leader (who in this case happens to be Callie, the social worker who looks after all of the members, in one capacity or another) explains, she has also included accounts from other members of the team and even correspondence written by some of them (Mary, who is probably my favourite character, at least in this book). So, we have chapters in the first person, from Callie’s point of view, and also chapters that detail what some of the other members of the team get up to. That works very well for the mystery side of things because it gives the reader a more complete picture of the events, and it also avoids the dreaded “too much telling and not enough showing”, whilst keeping some stuff off the page and not revealing too much information too soon.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that, with this premise, the story will be a bit low on action and the characters won’t be hands-on, but you’d be wrong. There is more action, violence (although much of it doesn’t happen live), and threats than tends to be the standard in cozies. And, a fair amount of deaths, although, as you might expect with such a group, not all of them are due to crimes. And apart from the main mystery, the one the Dying Five are investigating, there are a few others that hover in the background and that have to do with the group itself and who is behind the Columbarium, the organisation that funds and oversees the group and other initiatives that take place at the hospice. Which, by the way, sounds like a terrific place.

I liked all the characters, even though some of them are anything but likeable at first, but they evolve. I won’t discuss them in detail because it would be difficult to do so without giving away the plot, but even those who aren’t there for very long play an important part, and we get to know them sufficiently to care for them. We have some who are funny (intentionally or unintentionally so), the caring ones, the meticulous ones, the helpful ones, the ones who aren’t good at social interactions… This is a pretty diverse book and we come across protagonists and other characters from all walks of life, races, sexual orientation, social standing… But they are all equal members here, and one of my favourite aspects of the novel is the way they all become a team and even the members who might not appear important at first end up playing a decisive role in the resolution of the case. Everybody contributes and with all their skills they do something that none could have achieved on their own. And yes, of course, not all of them are who or what they seem to be, as you might suspect.

Another favourite aspect of the book for me was how their illnesses, their end-of-life decisions, and confronting their own mortalities are dealt with. The author is a social worker and a professor teaching social workers, and it is evident that this is a subject she is passionate about. That is another way this book is different from some of the other cozies I’ve read, as it is not all light subjects and fun. There are serious moral issues at play here; it’s impossible to read the book without asking yourself some uncomfortable questions, and there are no easy answers. Some might not agree with the way the group handled what happened, but I appreciated the mention of restorative justice, something I think is worth thinking about more often than it is at the moment.

Did I guess the solution to the mystery? Some aspects of it I did, some quite late in the day, but I was so taken by the overall story that I didn’t mind at all. I wanted to know the answer, but I also wanted to spend more time with the characters and know what was in stock for them. Despite what we know will happen to many of the protagonists, I felt this was a feel-good novel with a positive outlook on life.

I enjoyed this novel, and I’d recommend it to readers who like cozies with a bit of a bite and are not afraid to face serious topics or have to think about painful and morally complex subjects. I have already started the second book in the series, so, don’t delay and check it out!

And I leave you with a quote that sums up the feel of the book for me:

Family really is more than blood kin and spouses. It’s whoever makes you feel like home.

Thanks to Rosie and to all the members of the team for their support, thanks to the author for offering me both novels in the series, and, most of all, thanks to all of you for visiting, reading, liking, sharing, commenting… Keep smiling and keep safe.