Book Reviews: A Glimmer of a Clue by Daryl Wood Gerber

 

Courtney Kelly left her father's landscaping business to open a fairy garden shop and teashop. After her mother died when Courtney was a child, she lost her love of fairies and the feeling of magic that came with them. After she settled into her new life, she not only regained her old belief but she regained the ability to see fairies. Now she's happy, made herself at home, and even can start a book club tea! But the next thing she knows, she's a suspect in a murder. Now Courtney has found herself drawn into another mystery when her friend Wanda gets into a fight with art critic Lana - who later is found dead with Wanda at the scene. Her friend often sleepwalks but Courtney knows she's not a killer. Can she prove it before it's too late? 

This is the second book in the Fairy Garden Mystery series which can be found here. 

Daryl Wood Gerber has written multiple mystery novels including the Aspen Adams series which can be found here and the Cookbook Nook Mystery series which can be found here. 

You can find her books on Bookbub here. 

REVIEW

Fairies, murder, and amateur sleuth make for an exciting and original mystery. The setting is just as magical as the fairies that float about the store. Set in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, this charming town provides the ideal backdrop for the magic to come to life and for murder to run rampant in this mystery. Daryl Wood Gerber strikes the ideal tone in this mystery with a lightheartedness that adds to the charm and the magic that comes from more than just the presence of fairies. The series is rooted in the beliefs that we had in childhood and in magic which is where Courtney Kelly found herself when she came to Carmel-by-the-Sea. She was confronted with her old childhood beliefs and the grief that she still harbored over her mother's death which is a journey that allowed her to see fairies again. Now that she can see fairies again, magic has re-entered her life and woven in through her fairy store and an assortment of plucky fairy characters. 

The mystery is complex with several suspects that have motives that create several turns in Courtney's investigation. The various threads peel back layers of the victim, Lana's life through the relationships she left behind which include the woman that loved Lana's first husband, the woman who blames her for the death of her husband, the man she had an affair with, Lana's current husband, and the woman she was seen fighting with before she died. Gerber explores the character, even after her death, through these various dynamics and used these connections to reveal different elements to the type of person Lana was while giving plenty of motive and suspects. The delightful cozy blends the standard mystery with touches of magic and fairies flittering about in Courtney's life. Of these characters, the most persistent is Fiona - Courtney's fairy sidekick - who is in a constant fluttered state at her side. The fairies are part of a hidden world within our own with their own language and add to the imagination that was put into the story.  A Glimmer of a Clue is a magical, charming, humorous, and unique mystery that blends murder with a charming exploration of the belief in magic and the delightful inclusion of fairies.