If you like the title of Mary Daheim’s latest Bed-and-Breakfast mystery, A Case of Bier, you’ll probably enjoy the book more than I did. I’m not a fan of broad humor, the hit you in the face, Three Stooges type of humor. But, this is the thirty-first book in the series, so Daheim’s mysteries reach their audience.

Judith McMonigle Flynn is ready for a vacation away from her popular B&B. But, she and her cousin Renie make the mistake of allowing their husbands to plan the trip to Banff in the Canadian Rockies. The two women imagined a stay in a luxurious hotel. Instead, they end up in a cheap motel while the men go off on an extended fishing trip.

How does Judith entertain herself? She’s nosy, so she checks out an unusual gathering of the Stokes family from Nebraska. They have a bier ready to send down the river when the family elder, Codger, dies. According to the family, Codger is ready to go anytime. But, when a body is found with knife wounds, it disappears before the Mounties can investigate. Unfortunately for Sergeant Brewster, RCMP, Judith is on the case. She’s been labeled a FASTO, a female amateur sleuth tracking offenders.

The fast-paced mystery supplies what passes for humorous dialogue between the cousins. There are multiple opportunies for disappearances of corpses and suspects. “What’s a vacation for if we can’t find a corpse?” sums up Judith McMonigle Flynn’s philosophy and the comic ongoing series. As I said, it’s not for me, but those who appreciate puns and broad humor might lap up A Case of Bier.


Mary Daheim’s website is www.marydaheimauthor.com

A Case of Bier by Mary Daheim. William Morrow, 2019. ISBN 9780062663818 (hardcover), 288p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure – I received the book to review for a journal.