A review by winemakerssister
A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan

3.0

I'm always on the lookout for mysteries that span the gap between cozy and thriller. That's my sweet spot, and it's hard to find. I read both sub-genres but especially like the ones that are not too sweet and not too scary. I thought Ryan's new series might fit that need, but it's definitely on the side of cozy.

I liked the premise and the setting, but found the book overly long and the heroine to be bland and two-dimensional. And sadly, it fell into that old-fogie-cozy trap that makes me crabby. I am very happy to read books written by older authors. But when the heroine is supposed to be 30-ish and she sounds 70, I find myself continually popped out of the story by her stilted old-fashioned dialogue. And too many cozies have this problem. Do authors not understand that they can't just label their MCs with a specific age, that they also need to sound and act as though they are that age? [/rant]