The Witchy Storyteller: Murder in Myrtle Bay by Isobel Blackthorn - Book Review

Murder in Myrtle Bay

Author: Isobel Blackthorn

Series: Ruth Final Mysteries #1 (Standalone)

Publication Date: 4^th July 2022

Publisher: Next Chapter

Format: Digital Copy

Page Count: 288 pages (83K words)

Price: $2.99 for Kindle Version

Genre: Contemporary Cozy Mystery

Book Synopsis

When feature writer Ruth Finlay and her elderly neighbor Doris Cleaver visit an antique and collectibles market in the small town of Myrtle Bay, they get a lot more than they bargained for.

After Ruth’s old tennis coach is found dead, they discover that there’s no lack of people who harbor a grudge against the victim, and a tangled web of family ties and lies begins to unravel. But can Ruth and Doris find the killer in time to avert a second murder?

A quirky feel-good mystery laced with intrigue, Murder in Myrtle Bay is the first book in Isobel Blackthorn’s ‘Ruth Finlay Mysteries’ series. Set in small-town Australia, it is a sure pick for any fan of classic whodunits and cozy mysteries!

Book Review

3.5 Stars

One Liner: Decent cozy mystery

This is the first book (standalone) in the series set in a Southern coastal town in Australia. As expected, the book divides time between character development and the central mystery. It sets the stage for the series to take off in the subsequent books.

Ruth and Doris share a warm friendship. I like how it is very realistic, with minor disagreements and differences of opinion. Both women have strong personalities, though Doris tops the list with her too-definite views in some aspects. The flaws add to their character development, though I wish the narration was in the third-person POV to give us a glimpse into Doris’ thought process.

The timeline is contemporary, around the 2000s, but has an old-world feel. While I struggled a little to align the two, I could see how it helped define the town and its people. It’s a small town anyway, so we can expect some older stuff to be a natural part of it.

Ruth and Doris have their preconceived notions about people (can’t help it in a small town setting). And both take time to accept information or consider details that don’t align with their opinions. However, they work towards the end goal of solving the crime. I wouldn’t call this a negative. After all, that’s how people react in real life.

I have to mention the food in this book. Ruth is a fab cook and enjoys it too. We see her cooking multiple times, and the desserts made my mouth water. Yum! I also like how Doris is not the typical older neighbor who likes to feed her younger friend. Ruth is the one in charge of cooking and timely meals. Ruth also juggles too many things, and I could feel her exhaustion.

I like the setting and began to enjoy its sort of erratic climate. It takes a while to visualize Myrtle Bay, but I did enjoy the process of discovering it, even if I don’t like being termed ‘geographically challenged’ for not knowing it rains in the region during October. I have no reason to know that!

The mystery, as such, is decent. We have many suspects and a few red herrings and slight twists. However, I don’t like how a major development (reveal) is done. It is a coincidence rather than a logical solution because of the sleuthing duo’s efforts (doesn’t help that they admit it). However, the ending is detailed and ticks off each issue one by one. This is well done without rushing through a multi-page explanation.

My biggest issue is with the pacing. The book feels long and slow despite being less than 300 pages. It takes time to understand the character dynamics during the initial pages. This further reduced the reading pace as I had to re-read a few paragraphs to understand who, what, and why.

There are many characters (active and mentioned) in the book. Most of them are also interrelated to each other. The whole thing can be confusing unless you want to draw a family tree. Just wing it like I did and go with the flow. Details will make sense along the way.

To summarize, Murder in Myrtle Bay is a good introduction to a new cozy mystery series with an uncommon sleuthing pair. It takes some time, but the characters will grow on you. My best wished for the rest of the series.

My thanks to the author and Coffee and Thorn for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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About Isobel Blackthorn

Isobel Blackthorn is an award-winning author of unique and engaging fiction. She writes gripping mysteries, historical fiction and dark psychological thrillers. Her Canary Islands collection begins with The Drago Tree and includes A Matter of Latitude, Clarissa’s Warning and A Prison in the Sun. Her interest in the occult is explored in The Unlikely Occultist: A biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey and the dark mystery A Perfect Square.

Her dark thriller The Cabin Sessions was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award 2018 and the Ditmar Awards 2018. Isobel’s biographical short story ‘Nothing to Declare’ which forms the first chapter of Emma’s Tapestry was shortlisted for the Ada Cambridge Prose Prize 2019. A Prison in the Sun was shortlisted in the LGBTQ category of the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards 2020 and the International Book Awards 2021. And The Unlikely Occultist: A biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey received an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Reader’s Favorite Book Awards.

Isobel writes nonfiction too. She is the author of the world’s only biography of Theosophist and mother of the New Age movement Alice Bailey – Alice A. Bailey: Life & Legacy.

Isobel’s first work, which she wrote in 2008, is Voltaire’s Garden. This memoir is set in the mid 2000s and tells the story of building a sustainable lifestyle B&B in Cobargo on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, which gained international attention when a firestorm razed the idyllic historic village on New Year’s Eve 2019.

Isobel’s writing appears in journals and websites around the world, including Esoteric Quarterly, New Dawn Magazine, Paranoia, Mused Literary Review, Trip Fiction, Backhand Stories, Fictive Dream and On Line Opinion. Isobel was a judge for the Shadow Awards 2020 long fiction category. Her book reviews have appeared in New Dawn Magazine, Esoteric Quarterly, Shiny New Books, Sisters in Crime, Australian Women Writers, Trip Fiction and Newtown Review of Books.

Isobel’s interests are many and varied. She has a long-standing association with the Canary Islands, having lived in Lanzarote in the late 1980s. A humanitarian and campaigner for social justice, in 1999 Isobel founded the internationally acclaimed Ghana Link, uniting two high schools, one a relatively privileged state school located in the heart of England, the other a materially impoverished school in a remote part of the Upper Volta region of Ghana, West Africa.

Isobel has a background in Western Esotericism. She holds 1st Class Honours in Social Studies, and a PhD from the University of Western Sydney for her ground-breaking research on the works of Alice A. Bailey. After working as a teacher, market trader and PA to a literary agent, she arrived at writing in her forties, and her stories are as diverse and intriguing as her life has been.

Isobel has performed her literary works at events in a range of settings and given workshops in creative writing.

British by birth, Isobel entered this world in Farnborough, Kent, She has lived in England, Australia, Spain and the Canary Islands.

Website: https://isobelblackthorn.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IBlackthorn

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isobelblackthorn/

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