Wedding Bell Blues by Ruth Moose is the second book in the “Dixie Dew” mystery series. Publisher: Minotaur, August 2016

Beth McKenzie, owner of the Dixie Dew Bed and Breakfast, is enjoying an exciting affair with her new love, Scott. Meanwhile, the town of Littleboro, North Carolina is abuzz with gossip about Crazy Reba’s upcoming nuptials. Most brides go crazy at some point, but Littleboro’s resident homeless lady has had a head start: she’s beloved, indulged, and most of all, eccentric. But at almost 60―or thereabouts―her marriage seems a little peculiar. Sure, she’s sporting a diamond big enough to choke a horse, but no one can tell if it’s real, or just a Cracker Jack prize she pilfered from a yard sale.

Crazy Reba’s wedding plans go confirmedly awry when the bride-to-be is arrested for her fiancé’s murder. Beth, determined to clear Reba’s name, gets in over her head when a lady wrestler who threatened to kill her books a room at the Dixie Dew, and Robert Redford, her neighbor’s white rabbit, disappears.

Then Littleboro’s First Annual Green Bean Festival gets up and running, a famous food writer becomes deathly ill, and Beth must battle through madcap mayhem to apprehend the culprit and save the day.

Wedding Bell Blues is Ruth Moose’s sequel to her winning debut, featuring her colorful array of characters and more laughs and hilarity.

Robert Redford is missing. So is the mystery man. Who really is Reba’s fiancé? And why oh why did she have to die in her B&B? You’ll find all the answers in this humorous tale where nothing is as it seems when Beth begins her own investigation to help her friend and save her B&B from having a notorious reputation. The comfortable tone and the steady pacing of this nicely crafted drama grabbed my attention immediately. The author has a way with the narrative putting me smack dab in the middle of all the action. I liked how this played out where every action caused a reaction which took me closer to solving this tantalizing whodunit. Let’s talk about this eccentrically quirky cast of characters where everyone has their own idiosyncrasies which enhanced all aspects of this intriguing mystery from Crazy Reba, to the Green Bean Festival to losing Robert Redford. This was a fun read and I can’t wait to see what happens next at Dixie Dew B&B.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from publisher via NetGalley.