Terrie Farley Moran – Carol's Notebook

Author: Terrie Farley Moran

Terrie Farley Moran is delighted to introduce mystery fans to the Read ‘Em and Eat café and bookstore, where murder and sweet tea are always on the menu. Agatha Award Best First Novel winner, Well Read, Then Dead, the first book in the Read ‘Em and Eat series has been followed by Caught Read-Handed. Read to Death is now available.

Terrie’s short mystery fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and various anthologies. She has been short-listed twice for the annual Best American Mystery Stories. And her story, “A Killing at the Beausoleil” was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Short Story.

The only thing Terrie enjoys more than wrangling mystery plots into submission is playing games and reading stories with any or all of her seven grandchildren.

I enjoyed Killing in a Koi Pond once I got through the first few chapters. Jessica arrives in South Carolina and is immediately surrounded by not so great people, aside from her friend Dolores who is a nice lady. Everyone else, including Dolores' husband, is a bully, or mean, or rude. And then Willis is killed that night. It was just too quick an introduction to the suspects and the murder happened too soon. Once I got settled in though, the story was fun. Jessica is the Jessica we've known for years, nosey, friendly, talkative. The other characters are fleshed out well, and several have reasons to want Willis dead, but you may guess who the killer is before Jessica's reveal. There were several twists, but to be honest, I enjoyed the characters more than the actual plot, but I think that's okay for a Murder, She Wrote book....