Bad Neighbors: An Agnes and Effie Mystery

Murder once again distracts 28-year-old Agnes Blythe and Effie, her eccentric great-aunt, from their work at the historic Stagecoach Inn in Naneda, N.Y., in Chance’s amusing sequel to 2017’s Bad Housekeeping. When a local mechanic, Mikey Brown, is found bludgeoned to death with a wrench, the police take mechanic Otis Hatch, Agnes’s beau, into custody. Meanwhile, a bus carrying seniors on a fall foliage tour breaks down, and Agnes agrees to accommodate them at her inn, where she’s soon busy tending to their every fussy need. Agnes doesn’t have much time to focus on Otis’s plight, until she realizes that contentious Delilah Fortune, the new cupcake purveyor in town, has taken a keen interest in proving Otis innocent. Ignoring Otis’s warning to stay out of the case, Agnes sets out to find the real murderer first. Luckily, her spunky elderly guests want in on the sleuthing. Fully rounded characters and a well-executed plot lift this entry well above the average cozy. [em]Agent: Stephany Evans, FinePrint Literary Management. (Apr.) [/em]