Friday, November 24, 2023

Shady Hollow by Juneau Black



Reviewed by Jeanne

Vera Vixen is the star reporter for the Shady Hollow Herald because this quick red fox has quite the nose for news.  Most of the time she covers events of local interest such as the spelling bee, but this time something almost unheard of has happened:  one of the citizens of the Hollow is dead and it looks like murder.  The deceased, Otto Sumpf, was the town curmudgeon with a sharp tongue but would that have been a reason for murder?  With police chief Theodore Meade too busy fishing (and avoiding unpleasantness) to take an active part in the investigation, Deputy Orville Braun dusts off The Big Book of Policing to solve the case.

Enjoyment of this book is highly dependent on your tolerance for whimsy.  The characters are all animals, from Lenore the raven who runs Nevermore Books to Reginald von Beaverpelt, leading citizen and sawmill owner.  The pace is leisurely but I liked the resolution.

I have to say I enjoyed it, but then I like movies like Zootopia or Fantastic Mr. Fox.  I’m not going to spend a lot of time wondering how a moose serves coffee or a snake does a medical examination.  I’m going to go with the flow.  I thought the idea was cute and I enjoyed the characters, enough so that I will be reading the rest of the series. 

Books in the series are:

Shady Hollow

Cold Clay

Mirror Lake

Twilight Falls

Summers End  (2024)

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