Who Killed Patrick? by Syl Waters

Who Killed Patrick? by Syl Waters
Series: Mr Bob Murder Mystery #1
Published by Eleftheria on August 22, 2020
Source: Rachel's Random Resources
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 258
Format: eBook
Purchase at Bookshop.org
Add on Goodreads

Sun, sea and… murder in Fuerteventura!

Boring. Going nowhere. That was Tarah’s life in the UK, before she moved to Fuerteventura to start a new adventure. But things came unstuck quicker than she’d planned. A dead guest on the holiday complex she manages threatens to pull apart her hoped-for dream life.

If she wants to keep her job and save the reputation of the business, she’s got to find out what happened to Patrick. Did he die of natural causes – or was he murdered?

Tarah’s pet guinea pig, Mr Bob, has a knack for sniffing out trouble and he suspects foul play. The mission is on: Who Killed Patrick?

With the assistance of Mr Bob and Diego, a local plumber, Tarah turns amateur sleuth to find out the truth.

Can Tarah and Mr Bob find the murderer before it’s too late? Will they be able to save the business and protect their blissful new life?

Escape to Fuerteventura with this most unlikely amateur sleuth duo as they investigate their first cozy crime together.

I will admit, I don’t pay a lot of attention to authors’ websites. I include links at the bottom of my posts, but really don’t spend much time looking at them. I stopped by Syl Waters’ as I was getting this post ready and her blog caught my attention. Who Killed Patrick? takes place on the island of Fuerteventura, a place I had never hear of but that Waters clearly loves. On her blog, she has several posts talking about the island, but she also has a funny one about a discussion she had with her mom. The sidekick in the book is a guinea pig, which her mom seemed to think made it a children’s book until Waters told her about how many bones a guinea pig has. Apparently her mom decided that the guinea pig was not actually much smaller than a chihuahua, the critter companion in a mystery her mom had read recently so maybe it was okay after all. It just made me laugh.

I love Tarah, our amateur sleuth. She’s fed up and bored with her life so she takes off to Fuerteventura. She finds a place to stay and a job and starts a new life in the sun. She’s finding happiness. And then a guest at the property she manages turns up dead, which is bad for the property and bad for her. No one wants to rent a room where you might be killed, and Tarah is feeling anxious, worried, and not safe. The police have written the death of as a heart attack, but she is pretty sure it was murder. With some help, she decides she needs to investigate. Her new friends are a fun group, each with his or her own quirks, but all likable.

The mystery was well done. There were several suspects and Mr Bob finds a major clue. I wasn’t surprised who the killer turned out to be, though, which is fine. For me, the best part of the book was the setting and people. The game nights with the Monopoly fights were funny and I loved the slower pace of life on the island. People were friendly and happy and it was a fun, light read, a good distraction.