Halloween Parade Peril

Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery, #10

by

Victoria Tait

Plot twists and viable suspects will keep readers guessing!

Halloween Parade Peril is the tenth book in author Victoria Tait's excellent British cozy mystery series featuring Dotty Sayers, a young widow building a fledgling antiques business. However, the story stands well on its own, and new readers will easily be able to slip into the action and have a great reading experience. 

Dotty returns to her home in the Cotswolds and soon receives a commission to help furnish a small historic castle being converted into a boutique hotel with some unique and hard-to-find antiques. When she discovers an upcoming Dublin auction scheduled for early November and advertising some promising pieces on her list, she decides to attend. Coincidentally, her good friend, Sergeant Keya Varma, is also planning a trip to Dublin to watch her boyfriend Sujin's band perform at the annual Bram Stoker Festival, held on the days leading up to Halloween, so they decide to travel together. Still trying to figure out where she stands in her relationship with her friend Zach, Dottie lets him know about her plans and is encouraged when he suggests meeting up in Dublin for a long-overdue catch-up. But despite the wonderful sightseeing and Zach's apparent interest, their promising reunion is tragically interrupted by murder. 

Dotty Sayers, the main character in this excellent series, returns home after completing several successful commissions and solving murders on the road, advanced antiques training, and with a confidence that has grown exponentially throughout the previous novels, ready to set up her own antiques business. Naturally, she has concerns about her relationship with Zach, who has his own fish to fry and has often given mixed signals in the past. It was great to have Dotty and Keya back together again, working together to solve the murder alongside the local Guarda. These two make a fun and effective team. 

The story features many of the sights, sounds, folklore, and history of the country, its people, and the city of Dublin in particular, with vivid descriptions of the surroundings and the activities the characters take part in. Almost a quarter of the book covers Dotty's visit and establishes the group's dynamics and the events leading up to the murder. From there, the investigation takes over and takes off! Several good suspects and some surprising plot twists distract or direct armchair detectives toward or away from the clues in the story until the final resolution reveals the tale. 

I recommend HALLOWEEN PARADE PERIL to cozy mystery readers, especially those who enjoy a Halloween seasonal story, a Dublin setting, or are fans of the previous books in the series. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from the author through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours.