Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'd give this series another shot, but didn't particularly warm to the protagonist at all, nor find the ending even slightly plausible. Spoiler alert: I couldn't suspend belief so far that I could find any charm in Aunt Bessie's crotchets, whatsoever, nor imagine she'd be a character so beloved by neighborhood children, nor by any parents if she'd been letting generations of unhappy or tantrum-prone children "run away from home" to stay at her place for brief periods. Aunt Bessie is in sore need of some redeeming qualities and characteristics if she's to pass as a beloved old lady, but seemed to come up very short in that department. The ending, however, was the disaster. That anyone associated with the police would stop elsewhere or shop for sundries and be late to a sting operation expressly designed to tempt a killer to off old Aunt Bessie was infuriatingly laughable. Even worse that a cop would stand idly by while a known killer was about to do Aunt Bessie in with a knife, just to see what else the killer might decide to do instead (rather than making Any attempt to disarm the killer ), or that a killer who'd used a knife on 2 other victims would suddenly put down the knife he'd brandished, in favor of throttling Aunt Bessie instead, simply defied any pretense at reason or logic and was likewise infuriatingly laughable. There were some definite strengths in the writing, particularly as concerned the setting, and with some of the other characters there were slight glimpses of promise, but not enough to accord a third star--this was a 2.5 star, at most. Endowing a few characters with a bit of charm, a slightly more interesting plot, and a more plausible ending might easily have notched this cozy up to a 3 or 4-star read, but it disappointed. It wasn't completely hopeless, so I might take a chance on another if I happen to be completely out of reading material at some point, but I'm not quite certain that I'd take another chance on this series, either. glimpses of promise too