While some people might secretly wish for the chance to attend their own funeral, most people wouldn’t want it to be while they were actually still living. They certainly wouldn’t want to have their loved ones told they were deceased when they were, in fact, very much alive. Unfortunately for our heroine, Madison Night, both are a reality. Love Me or Grieve Me is the latest installment in Diane Vallere’s Madison Night Mysteries.
A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY
After a regrettable mixup at a local newspaper, an obituary for Madison was incorrectly published. The actually deceased “Addison Nigh” was an elderly woman who was a well-known jazz singer at the height of her career. One can’t blame our heroine Madison for wanting to check out the funeral that many people thought was hers.
It’s not until one of the funeral attendees ends up dead in his own bar that Madison begins to realize there may be more nefarious things at play than a simple misprint in the paper.
Through a chance connection from Madison’s interior design business, our heroine soon discovers that she and the singer Addison Nigh — or Sunny, as she was known off stage — have more in common than she once realized.
As a task from Madison’s clients pulls her deeper into Sunny’s past and the location of the murder, Madison realizes that even with all of her previous experiences with amateur sleuthing, she might truly be out of her depth. The fact that the newspaper keeps making mistakes and the possibility that someone is trying to steal her identity only complicates things further.
COZY TEXAN MYSTERY
Love Me or Grieve Me is a book for cozy mystery fans everywhere and a wonderful starting point for anyone new to the genre. It’s set during the first breath of autumn in Dallas, Texas and it leans into all the delicious descriptions of its setting’s region. Its descriptions of food, fashion, and Dallas itself were so charming reading it felt like an experience that required one to implement all five senses.
I was not familiar with the Madison Night series before picking up this book, and while I was not at all lost, it made me want to know the world the author created better.
REFRESHING TAKE WITH CAPTIVATING CHARACTERS
The supporting cast of characters was so delightful and quirky that it felt like I knew each one personally. They were each genuine and played such distinct roles in Madison’s daily life, it was easy to keep them all straight even as a newcomer to the series.
It was also a pleasant surprise to read about a heroine in her middle age. In a genre that is dominated by either young twenty-somethings who are new to town or elderly Grandmothers dressed in their Sunday best, I found Madison to be an incredibly refreshing and new kind of heroine.
The romance between Madison and her boyfriend, Tex, was also a highlight. He is just the kind of surly, BBQ-obsessed detective one wants as a romantic interest in a book set in Texas. Tex was able to be both refreshingly supportive of Madison’s intelligence and independence while also caring for her deeply enough to be protective of her. This is often a fine line to walk and I thought Vallere did it masterfully.
The marvelous setting was the perfect backdrop for an unraveling mystery that had me on my toes throughout the book. I felt like Love Me or Grieve Me had all the important aspects of a cozy mystery while still feeling fresh and full of imagination. I will certainly be going back to read more mysteries from Diane Vallere after this. If you are looking for a suspenseful “whodunit” without the gore or horror of other genres, this book is definitely for you.
Love Me or Grieve Me is available for purchase here.
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About Diane Vallere:
National bestselling author Diane Vallere writes smart, funny and fashionable character-based mysteries. After two decades of working for a top luxury retailer, she traded fashion accessories for accessories to murder. A past president of Sisters in Crime, Diane started her own detective agency at age ten and has maintained a passion for shoes, clues and clothes ever since.
