REVIEW: Berried Secrets

Berried Secrets
Author: Peg Cochran

Monica Albertson comes to Cranberry Cove to help her half-brother Jeff. Jeff's cranberry farm is about to go bankrupt and she wants to help him keep his business. Just after she notices some anomalies in the farm's financial records, the former manager's body is found floating in the cranberry bog during harvest. Apparently, Sam Culbert was stealing from the farm the entire time Jeff was fighting in Afghanistan, making Jeff the prime suspect in his murder. But, Monica knows Jeff isn't a murderer. She has to find the real killer before her brother ends up in jail!

I love cranberries. I buy a year's supply each fall when they appear in stores for the holiday season. I keep them in the freezer and put them into my morning protein shake almost every day. So when I saw a cozy series set on a cranberry farm, I had to read it! There are four books in the series.

I enjoyed Monica as a main character. She is intelligent and dedicated to helping her brother. Jeff is recovering from injuries sustained in Afghanistan and really does need her help. The one character I really didn't like....and that almost made me stop reading the book on more than one occasion....is the overbearing stepmother, Gina. I found the character just a bit too annoying. Gina did mellow out and became helpful when the mystery got rolling. That's what kept me reading when I wanted to jump into the book and tell her to shut up. Lord have mercy -- what an annoying character! lol

All in all, a nice start to a cozy series! Since this series is a relatively short one....just four books...I will definitely read the rest of the series. I liked the side theme of a cranberry farm....there was a lot of information on growing and harvesting cranberries sprinkled in with the mystery. I enjoyed it!

This is definitely a cozy mystery. No cursing, no sex, no graphic descriptions of murder victims. An enjoyable "clean'' read. On to book 2!

This is the first book by Peg Cochran that I've read. She has written several other cozy series including the Gourmet De-Lite series, Lucille Mysteries and a new series, Murder, She Reported.