Mary Ellis: What Happened on Beale Street

By Kelly Bridgewater

What Happened on Beale Street is an exciting addition to the Secrets of the South Mysteries from bestselling author Mary Ellis. These standalone, complex crime dramas follow a private investigator's quest to make the world a better place...solving one case at a time.

A cryptic plea for help from a childhood friend sends cousins Nate and Nicki Price from New Orleans to Memphis, the home of scrumptious barbecue and soulful blues music. When they arrive at Danny Andre's last known address, they discover signs of a struggle and a lifestyle not in keeping with the former choirboy they fondly remember.

Danny's sister, Isabelle, reluctantly accepts their help. She and Nate aren't on the best of terms due to a complicated past, yet they will have to get beyond that if they want to save Danny.

On top of Danny's alarming disappearance and his troubled relationship with Isabelle, Nate also has to rein in his favorite cousin's overzealousness as a new and eager PI. Confronted with a possible murder, mystery, and mayhem in the land of the Delta blues, Nate must rely on his faith and investigative experience to keep one or more of them from getting killed.

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My Thoughts:

I enjoy mysteries of any form. Some mysteries are more mysterious and filled with non-stop action. Mary Ellis is a writer who normally creates in the Amish romance genre, and since I avoid that genre completely, I haven't read anything by Ellis. But when she wrote a cozy mystery, I thought why not? 

 As for her Secrets of the South Mysteries, I think she did a good job.

The story starts with a phone calling begging Nicki to travel to Memphis to help an old friend named Danny. As Nicki travels to Memphis, she becomes wrapped up in a mystery when Danny's body is found in a river. Ellis keeps me interested, and I couldn't wait to see what happened with Danny.

I really enjoyed reading the story with returning and familiar characters. Ellis brought back Nate, Nicki, and Hunter from the first book to join forces and solve the crime. It was nice seeing Nicki and Hunter's relationship bloom from the first book.

The plot was just what I expected with a cozy mystery. A mystery thrown into a middle of a budding relationship. There were lots of moments where the story doesn't even focus on the mystery; it focuses on the lives of the characters. But Ellis knows the conventions of the cozy mystery genre and sticks to it.

Mary Ellis created a cozy mystery that fits right in the genre with Christy Barritt and Lorena McCourtney. Fans of these writers will enjoy this book.

I received a complimentary copy of What Happened on Beale Street from Harvest House Publishers and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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How do cozy mysteries compare to mysteries, suspense, and thrillers? Which genre do you enjoy the best?