🦊 🔍 Shady Hollow

Summary

Shady Hollow is a small woodland town inhabited by anthropomorphic animal living simple lives. The story follows Vera Vixen a no nonsense report for the town's newspaper, who as her name implies is a fox. The quiet town is irrevocably changed when it is discover that Otto, the town grouch, has been murdered.

Since there is usually little news to speak of in the calm town of Shady Hollow, the town is eager to eat up every article the newspaper publishes on the murder. In order to keep up with the now bustling newspaper, Vera must become a detective of sorts (much to the chagrin of the local police deputy Orville).

While engaged in her sleuthery, Vera is nearly killed herself by a tumbling boulder. Shortly after her failed assassination attempt, the local tycoon Reginald Von Beaverpelt is killed in a similar to Otto.

While trying to solve the two murders Vera puts herself deeper into danger. Eventually she is able to piece enough clues together to have a strong suspicion of who the murder is. In a high stakes climax, Vera and the killer are isolated from the rest of the townsfolk. Without spoiling more than I already have, Vera makes it out by the skin of her teeth and is able to prove to the town who the murderer is with the evidence she has collected.

Thoughts

I enjoyed reading the book. It is quite short, and one can easily read it over a relaxed weekend. The setting is cozy, the characters are charming, and the writing style is relaxed. However, as a murder mystery, the book falls flat. The murderer's motives are somewhat illogical making it difficult to solve before the book reveals itself to you (which is sort of the whole point of the genre). There are more books in the series, and I liked this first one enough to continue the series. I just hope the murder mystery part is executed better in the sequels.