Death at Breakfast by Beth Gutcheon

Maggie and Hope are taking a vacation together.  They are staying at a hotel in Maine where they will take a cooking class.  They are also planning on visiting with Hope's son, a local police officer.  What they aren't planning on is murder...

William Morrow and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published May 10th.

Maggie is an ex-school teacher and she's observant and smart.  She can read between the lines.  Hope has other attributes but neither one of them will stand for murder.

There are odd folks in the hotel.  One man has a pet parrot, one has a dog, there's a pet snake and the folks who have checked in are all pretty tame except for the big wig and his family.  He has an attitude of importance, nothing is good enough for him, and he wants everyone to cater to him.  He antagonizes his wife and her sister.  He refuses to go to his daughter's funeral.  And, in a couple of days, he's dead.  He's not only snake bit, he's burned to death from a fire he started by smoking in a non-smoking room.

I'm afraid I felt more empathy for the murderer than I did for the victim.  What really happened to him was karma.  

This is a sad troubled tale but it was encouraging to see Hope's son working on the case and learning from his mom and Maggie.  The type of murder was unusual, the back story was the sad part, and I can't feel sorry for the victim.

I wonder where Maggie and Hope will go on vacation next?