The Merry Mascot

Author: Bobby Jaye Allen
Genre: Mystery
Reviewed by: Kevin Tipple

For Detective Brady Kinkaid life has been pretty good lately. The small town life of Early, Michigan suits him well and he likes working in the Police Department. He has turned fifty and despite minor concerns about his age is handling himself well. Then there is the fact that he has found love in the form of his fellow Detective, Alice Drinker. While both are very happy, neither one is entirely sure of the other's actions, since both have been burned so badly before. The death of someone will once again have a lasting impact on both of them and those they know.

As students and staff at small Brewster State in the neighboring town of Brewster get ready to celebrate making the final sixteen of the current NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, their mascot is found dead. Professor Didi Terry, who doubled as the school's mascot, has been found hung in the school's bell tower. But, whoever set it up to appear as a suicide botched it badly. It was murder and Detective Brady begins to work the case. So too does Geraldine Pozy, ace reporter for the local paper, the "Early Eagle."

Before long, against a backdrop of small town politics and the basketball tournament, Geraldine and Brady begin to uncover clues from their opposite positions in the case that point towards a possible suspect. They aren't the only ones and soon a killer has to take matters in hand once again to cover up the original crime. But cover-ups and taking care of the messy little details can get easily complicated.

Everyone is back in this cozy style mystery, which follows On The Chopping Block. The romance between Alice and Brady continues, as does the one between Geraldine and Lincoln despite the occasional stumbles in each relationship. So too does the author's ability to keep readers guessing the identity of the mastermind which is hidden skillfully right to the end. Fans of this series won't be disappointed in this latest installment and new readers will enjoy this tale of murder in a small town against the backdrop of politics and sports.

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