Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers by Heather Weidner

Series Name: Jules Keene Glamping Mystery #1
Genre: Cozy
Release: October 26, 2021

There is nothing like finding a dead body, clad only in a red satin thong, on your property to jolt you from a quiet routine. Jules Keene, owner of the posh Fern Valley Camping Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is thrust into the world of the Dark Web when one of her guests, Ira Perkins, is found murdered in the woods near her vintage trailers. Jules quickly discovers that the man who claimed to be on a writing retreat was not what he seemed, and someone will go to any length to find what he left at her resort. Jules, along with her Jack Russell Terrier sidekick Bijou, has to put the rest of the missing pieces of a blackmailing scheme together before her business is ruined.

Jules’s resort, set in the heart of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains near Charlottesville in the quaint town of Fern Valley, offers guests a unique vacation in refurbished and upcycled vintage trailers. Hoping to expand her offerings, she partners with her maintenance/security guy to create a village of tiny houses, the latest home DIY craze, but a second murder of a reporter interrupts Jules’s expansion plans. Curiosity gets the best of her, and she steps up her sleuthing to find out what Ira Perkins was really up to and what he was really hiding at her resort.

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Dru’s Short Musing:
I love the premise of this well-written and light-hearted whodunit where we meet Jules Keene, who owns a camping resort where murder does not mix with vintage trailers, but alas a guest fell victim and it was up to Jules to figure out the who, the what, and the why this person was murdered and to protect her business.

From the introduction of the characters to the small-town atmosphere to the vintage trailer camp to the victim to the events leading up to his death and the killer’s identity and apprehension, the author did a great job in presenting this well-crafted mystery that kept me immersed in all aspects. The suspect pool was short, but it was the follow-ups that kept me in the guessing game. The author knows how to tell a story that was both intriguing and suspenseful with visually descriptive narrative and engaging dialogue. The pacing was on par with how well this story was being told. Overall, this was fun book and I look forward to more adventures with Jules and her friend in this delightfully entertaining series.