Review of:  What the Hatmaker Heard (A Missy DuBois Mystery)

Sandra Bretting

July 25, 2020

Wow, this was an even more fun read than I expected! I knew I was jumping in mid-series with this book (#6), but because I've seen/heard a lot of great reviews of this author's work, I figured why not pick up the latest and see for myself? I anticipated being a little lost since I hadn't read the earlier books, but I wasn't! This can definitely be read as a stand-alone, although the protagonist references her earlier adventures which sound equally as exciting! The writing was top-notch and the pace was perfect. There was just enough description and dialogue to paint the scenes and flesh out the characters, without making the story drag. And the characters were fantastic - I felt like I could just picture each one!! This would make an excellent movie, as each person was wonderfully imagined (and their behavior seemed equally as suspicious!). I loved the Southern setting and colloquialisms, and the protagonist (Missy) was totally relatable. This was thankfully a clean mystery - a puzzle without any violence, gore, or explicit scenes. I didn't guess the real culprit and loved seeing how the clues came together and the crime was solved. Plus the book ended with a wedding after all! I'm going to now binge-read the first 5 books and look up what else this author has written.