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I was able to knock back a short, ebook novella today. It was A Wicked Whack by Constance Barker. This is the prequel to the series I thought I was beginning when I read the first book in the Mad River mystery series. Reading book 1 (before the prequel) meant I already knew who the murderer was in this story, alas.

We have young Shelby Whitaker, who can see and speak to ghosts. Since she lives near an old Civil War battlefield, there are plenty of ghosts around to talk to. Shelby and her sister Harriet live in the old Victorian left to them by their mother. Each of them works in Mad River. The town is preparing for its annual Civil War reenactment. While Shelby is setting up her textiles display, she learns that Jenny, a fellow reenactor, has been murdered. When Jenny herself appears to Shelby, it's up to Shelby to tell Jenny that she's dead. Rather than be devastated, Jenny seems somewhat ho-hum about the situation. She was struck down from behind, so she has no idea who killed her; all Jenny remembers is that she was eating strawberry preserves.

Here's where the story just gets confusing. So, Shelby knows that Jenny was eating strawberry preserves, yet no strawberry preserves were found anywhere near her body. Shelby zeroes in on this as the Big Clue. Find the strawberry preserves, and you'll find the killer, right? While I don't disagree with that assessment, what I can't for the life of me understand is why the murderer would have removed the strawberry preserves from the scene of the crime. It made absolutely no sense. Jenny was killed while she was eating strawberry preserves, not because she was eating them. I mean, if you sneaked up on your enemy while she was eating a cupcake and buried an axe in her head, would you bother to take the cupcake with you? Bizarre.

Spoiler Alert: Shelby helps police officer Nick find the jar of preserves, and testing reveals whose fingerprints are on it, and voila! Mystery solved.

The story itself was light and cozy, but the clues were so ridiculous and unrealistic that it ruined my enjoyment of it.

Favorite line: "I had an axe in the back of my head numbskull. Why was he even bothering with my pulse?"

Blah. Two stars:

**

I started an ebook last night, and I finished it this evening. It was A Prickly Predicament by Constance Barker. The story is listed as the first in the author's "Mad River" mystery series, but apparently there is a prequel I haven't read yet. That didn't affect this story, but it did contain spoilers for the prequel. Oh, well.

Shelby is a young woman living in Mad River with her sister Harriet, in the home they inherited from their mother. Shelby can see and communicate with the multitude of ghosts that call Mad River home, most of them from the Civil War era. When a pair of ghost hunters come to town, Shelby's spectral friends are understandably nervous, but when one of the ghost hunters is killed in an accident, things get really tense. The other ghost hunter claims a ghost killed his friend, and now the townspeople are clamoring for an exorcism. Shelby and her ghostly friends begin searching for clues as to what really happened, and they are aided by the ghost of the ghost hunter. Ha ha!

Fun, light story. Shelby's character was portrayed well enough, although others were a bit two-dimensional. Still, this was a novella, and it's early in the series, so I have hope that we'll learn more about the other characters in future installments.

Favorite line: I was as frustrated as Lee at Appomattox...

Better than average, four stars:

****