Dead Before Dinner by Kerry Schafer

Dead Before Dinner: A Shadow Valley Manor Mystery (Shadow Valley Manor #3) by Kerry Schafer

Release: July 13th 2021
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Write at the Edge
Source: Suzyapproved Book Tours
Find it at: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, TBD

Veteran paranormal investigator Maureen Keslyn never asked for life to be easy-for her, nothing is more invigorating than hunting down and ending a dangerous paranormal adversary. Fortunately, life at Shadow Valley Manor tends to be a little more…interesting…than the experience at your average retirement community.

Right now, though, even she has to admit that things are getting out of hand. The bizarre murder of one of her elderly residents is only the beginning. How is she going to focus on tracking down the killer when there’s a spider loving middle-schooler underfoot? Worse, she’s acquired an unwelcome roommate-an elderly woman with dementia and a penchant for walking through walls.

Maureen is ever resourceful, but the death count keeps rising despite her best efforts and the help of her team. With the life of a child hanging in the balance, Maureen has to take extraordinary measures-but will they be enough?

About the Author:

Kerry Schafer writes fantasy and paranormal mysteries featuring fun supernatural chills, dark humor, and quirky characters. Her alter ego, Kerry Anne King, is a Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller who writes family dramas with an undercurrent of romance. She has been voted the 2020 Writer of the Year by the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Association.

In addition to writing, Kerry is enthusiastic about encouraging and supporting other writers. She is a writer mindset coach and speaker, and the host of Tell Me Your Secrets, a videocast/podcast featuring lively, informal interviews with authors and other people involved in bringing books into the world. When not absorbed in creative pursuits, you’ll find Kerry hanging out with her real-life Viking on their little piece of heaven in rural northeastern Washington.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

Dead Before Dinner Review:

Creepy spiders, ghosts, and DNA tampering are only a few of the strange things that happened in “Dead Before Dinner” and make it a captivating read.

What’s nice about this series is how you can read each book as a standalone and enjoy it. This book starts off a bit different from the previous ones in that it feels more like a murder mystery initially without the supernatural elements. Maureen finds one of the residents, Ida Mae, dead, and in the beginning, it doesn’t feel like anything supernatural. However, once the death count starts increasing, the story gets suspenseful as we try to figure out who is behind it.

Similar to the previous books, I enjoyed Maureen and Jake in the lead. Poor Maureen. Many people disagree with her in this book, from Jill to Karin to Mac. We get new characters like Ellen, who adds creepiness to the tale. Jake and Maureen also share a friendly camaraderie, and what I liked about this tale is how they have conflicting thoughts about the suspects. Maureen is fun and snarky as always, and I enjoyed her in this book. Karin is also interesting as another new character, and I loved how creative the author made them. Some of the memorable moments in the tale are when Maureen goes to Ellen’s house to find out more about her or when Maureen learns about the Queen.

Overall, “Dead Before Dinner” is the third book in the “Dead Before Dinner” series and is equally entertaining as the previous two. Even though you can read it as a standalone, I recommend you read the entire series to know the character’s history.