Book Details:
Author: Erik D’Souza
Release Date: November 26, 2019
Series: A Suzanne Rickson Mystery – Large Font Books
Genre: Cosy Mystery, Animal Mystery
Format: E-book
Pages: 244 pages
Publisher: –
Blurb:
Rivalry, jealousy, and petty spats are common among the seniors living at Secret Cove townhouse complex. But the murder of a friend is the last straw for Suzanne Rickson. Fans of Murder, She Wrote and Miss Marple will love this smart and resourceful sleuth. Death in Halfmoon Bay is a tantalizing whodunit that will keep you guessing till the end. — Debra Purdy Kong, Award-Winning Author of Casey Holland Transit Mysteries.
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A charming, page-turning cozy that draws the reader in and never lets them go. Great characters and surprising plot twists and turns make for a terrific read. —A.J. Devlin, Award-Winning Author of Hammerhead Jed Mysteries
A twisted act of love, relentless politics, and multiple poisonings pit neighbour against neighbour in what was once a serene, West Coast retirement community. From the beginning, Suzanne Rickson is confident that her nemesis, Regina Snow, has murdered the HOA treasurer. All she has to do is prove it.
When a rumour re-surfaces that her husband was having an affair with the deceased, Suzanne realizes that everyone, including the police, considers her the prime suspect. Can Suzanne establish her own innocence as evidence is rapidly pilling up against her?
Review
Death in Halfmoon Bay by Erik D’Souza is a warm, traditional mystery with a distinctly cosy heart, set within the Secret Cove Retirement Community on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast. The novel follows Suzanne Rickson, a sharp, stubborn, observant retiree whose quiet life is disrupted when her friend Adeline Wong is poisoned. What begins as grief quickly turns into suspicion when Suzanne realises the murder may be tied to strata politics, old grudges, inheritance, rumours, and someone’s calculated attempt to frame her.
Suzanne is easily the novel’s strongest element. She is opinionated, proud, nosy, intelligent, occasionally prejudiced in her assumptions, and wonderfully human. Her love of Agatha Christie, her needlepoint, her tea, her French-Canadian background, her Catholic guilt, her sharp tongue, and her constant sparring with her husband Charles make her feel extremely realistic rather than artificially quirky. Charles, meanwhile, is a lovely counterbalance: gentle, practical, funny, and emotionally steadier than Suzanne, even when she is dragging him into danger. Their marriage gives the book much of its warmth.
The mystery itself is layered with classic cosy ingredients. Author D’Souza does a good job using the small community setting to his advantage. Everyone knows everyone, everyone gossips, and almost every rumour carries either a clue, a lie, or both. Staff Sergeant Laval is also a strong addition, bringing a pleasant investigative tension to Suzanne’s amateur sleuthing.
What I appreciated most is that the novel does not treat older characters as background figures. Suzanne, Charles, Connie, Ivan, Adeline, Lan, Regina, Byron, Walter, Dariya, and Murray all have histories, resentments, secrets, loneliness, pride, and emotional baggage. The result is a mystery that feels less like a puzzle dropped into a retirement village and more like a story grown out of decades of accumulated human behaviour.
Overall, Death in Halfmoon Bay is an enjoyable and affectionate traditional mystery with a memorable amateur sleuth, a strong sense of place, and a satisfyingly tangled web of motives. It will appeal especially to readers who enjoy cosy mysteries with older protagonists, small-community intrigue, domestic clues, and a heroine who is equal parts irritating, brilliant, and impossible not to root for.
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