Book 64, 2020

[chez_jae]

Christmas Cow Bells by Mollie Cox Bryan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Before lunch, I completed the book Christmas Cow Bells by Mollie Cox Bryan. It's the first in the "Buttermilk Creek" mystery series, featuring Brynn MacAlister.

After her fiance cheated on her, Brynn is still determined to go on with the plans they'd made together, but without him. She buys a small farm in the Shenandoah valley and moves there with her three Red Devon dairy cows. Brynn has always dreamed of becoming a cheesemaker, and she sets out to accomplish that. However, she soon learns that even small, bucolic communities can have a dark underbelly. Brynn's next door neighbor, Nancy, dies in a mysterious fire. They had only started to become friends, and Nancy's death leaves Brynn feeling lonely and adrift, especially so close to Christmas. Making matters worse, her cow, Petunia, lost a calf and has been moody, melancholy, and mooing ever since. Other people in the area are getting upset with Petunia's carryings-on. Brynn's problems only increase when someone seems determined to scare her off, too. She gets frustrated when it seems the local police aren't taking her complaints seriously. Brynn starts looking into the matter herself, trying to figure out why someone would kill Nancy and try to scare her off of her property.

This book appealed to me since I grew up on a dairy farm. However, it quickly became apparent that the author knows precious little about cows. While it's true that dairy cows moon around when their calves are taken from them (or in Petunia's case, stillborn), but it typically only lasts three or four days, not several weeks! I'm not suggesting they don't have feelings; rather, they get on with their lives much more quickly than the author imagines. Mind you, these are the same animals that, if left completely to their own devices, would be kicking and shoving their calves away from them within a year of being born, because a new calf was on the way. Also, I have never, in 50+ years of being up close and personal with cattle, observed one "rocking back and forth" in grief. Good lord. Finally, cows do not bite! OMGuernsey. Cattle do not have front, upper teeth. How in the hell would they be capable of biting? You know, it's fine that the author wanted to write about cows without being familiar with them, but do your research! If you don't know someone whom you can ask cattle-related questions of, get your Google-fu on. On a lark, I just Googled "can cows bite" and the top response was Cows can't bite because they don't have top front teeth. They may “gum” you, but they can't bite you. Cattle do have molars on the upper and lower jaw, but their incisors are only the lower jaw. That literally took me ten seconds, yet the author couldn't look it up?


- Deer do not get 'frail and skinny' in December, especially in an area that would not normally see much snow cover. They may be looking tough later in the winter, but December? No.
- Is Freckles the dog a boy or a girl? Its gender changed from one paragraph to the next. Editing, people!
- I just cannot with the fact that Brynn and her friend Willow found a box of money in the old cemetery, but chose to wait until morning to call the police about it. WTF?! Of course, when the sheriff came by in the morning, the money was gone. Gee, who woulda thunk it?
- What became of the package that was addressed to Nancy but delivered to Brynn?

I don't know. Nothing made sense until the wrap-up at the end. A well-crafted mystery should have one clue or situation building on another, not just random happenings and clues. I didn't really get a sense of Brynn's character, either. I know she was serious and stubborn, determined and dependable, but beyond that...nada. Personally, I prefer my characters to have more of a sense of humor. I found other characters more likable than Brynn.

Favorite line: Sometimes a place reaches deep inside of you, flows through you with light and warmth, and fills you with a sense of belonging, a sense of home.

I wanted to enjoy this book. I was looking forward to reading a series that centered around dairy cattle, but this fell flat, in my opinion, and I doubt I'll be reading any more in the series. Average read, average score.