Belinda Blake and the Snake in the Grass (An Exotic Pet-Sitter Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Lyrical Underground (June 25, 2019)
Paperback: 192 pages

Synopsis

When exotic pet-sitter Belinda Blake moves into a carriage house in tony Greenwich, Connecticut, she’s hoping to find some new clients. Instead she discovers a corpse in the garden—and a knack for solving murders . . .

Pet-sitter Belinda Blake doesn’t rattle easily, but move-in day has been eventful, to say the least. The python in her care tried to slither to freedom—just as she met Stone Carrington V, her landlords’ disarmingly handsome son. With the constrictor back in its cage, she heads out to the garden, only to discover a designer shoe poking out of the boxwood hedge—attached to a woman’s dead body.

The victim, Margo Fenton, was a Carrington family friend, and no one in their circle seems above suspicion. Between client trips to Manhattan and visits to her family in upstate New York, Belinda begins to put the pieces together. But though she’s falling for Stone’s numerous charms, Belinda wonders if she’s cozying up to a killer. And soon, daily contact with a deadly reptile might be the least dangerous part of her life . . .

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Review

What a way to start a new series – red herrings galore, hidden killers, and mysterious motives.  All of these lead to an unexpected ending.

Exotic pet sitter – someone has to do it and Belinda is up to the task.  While we learn a little bit about her past, she seems quite happy not being stuck in a traditional type job and is building up a pet sitting business for those pets that traditional pet sitters may not want to take on, like a ball python snake.  I can’t even imagine taking care of  snake, but I suppose it helps that Belinda’s father is a veterinarian and she probably grew up around various types of animals.

Belinda has just moved into a cottage on a larger estate in Greenwich and she is barely there a day when she discovers a dead body.  Most people would probably move out faster than the Energizer Bunny, but she takes it all in stride and starts to investigate alongside Stone the Fifth, the son of the manor.  I was surprised at how quickly Stone and Belinda seemed to connect to start investigating the murder, it seemed like that part of the story was rushed.  That said, Stone and Belinda make a great team and play well off of each other around potential suspects and witnesses.

Speaking of suspects….I think I briefly suspected the killer but not long enough for this character to stay in the “guilty box”.  In fact, I strongly suspected another character and was taken by surprise when the ending came about and the killer was revealed.  The author does a great job of throwing multiple characters under the bus as suspects and hiding the true one.

There is a little bit of potential romance between Belinda and Stone, but there is also another character, Jonas, that might come into play as well.  However, Jonas lives by her parents in upstate New York so not sure how that might work out considering the distance…but guess we will find out in the next book!

Overall we enjoyed this book and look forward to the second in this series.  We give this 4 paws up.

About the Author

Heather Day Gilbert, an ECPA Christy award finalist and Grace award winner, writes contemporary mysteries and Viking historicals. Her novels feature small towns, family relationships, and women who aren’t afraid to protect those they love. Like Belinda Blake, Heather plays video games, although so far she hasn’t done any exotic pet-sitting or hunted any murderers.

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