I wonder where Amanda Flower would have taken the characters of the Piper and Porter cozy mystery series if Hallmark Publishing hadn’t closed down. Frozen Detective follows Dead-End Detective, the mystery that introduced private detective Darby Piper and her partner in the business, Tate Porter. I suggest reading Dead-End Detective first. It helps to understand the relationship between the two sleuths.
Cecily Madd has all kinds of money to throw at her case when she shows up at the small firm in Herrington, New York. She went to high school there with Tate Porter. Now, she’s married to Dr. Garrett Madd, a dermatologist with a fifty million dollar skincare line, MaddlyCares. Cecily’s husband has been getting threatening notes, and she doesn’t want to go to the police. Instead, she invites Tate and Darby to attend her New Year’s weekend at the nearby Garden Peak Lodge. Cecily has taken over the lodge and the nearby ski slope for the entire weekend for her guests. She insists the person who wrote the notes will be at the lodge over the weekend. Tate and Darby can go undercover as a couple. Nothing sits well with Piper. She doesn’t like paring up with Tate; she has to wear a dress to the New Year’s Eve party, and she doesn’t ski. She also thinks their client is hiding something.
On New Year’s Day, Darby Piper is the one who finds a murdered body. She has to convince her ex-boyfriend, Police Detective Austin Caster, that it was murder because he’s willing to say the victim was killed by a hunter. Then, Piper and Porter become hunters, looking for a killer. But, it seems almost everyone at the lodge has a reason to want the victim dead.
While Frozen Detective was an enjoyable cozy mystery, I understand why one reader said she couldn’t warm up to either of the sleuths. I liked them because I grew to like them in the previous book. I’ll admit, though, there was was no additional character development that would encourage a reader to keep going with Piper and Porter.
Just my personal pondering. I don’t know if Amanda Flower has the rights to her characters, or whether the series will continue. Perhaps there was no reason to continue to develop the characters. If you’d like to discover more of Flower’s writing, she’s written a number of cozy mysteries, and a new historical one, Because I Could Not Stop for Death. That mystery features Emily Dickinson, and it was just nominated for the 2023 Mary Higgins Clark Award.
Amanda Flower’s website is http://www.amandaflower.com/
Frozen Detective by Amanda Flower. Hallmark Publishing, 2023. ISBN 9781952210549 (paperback), 289p.
FTC Full Disclosure – Library book
I have read her books, too bad, it is important to like the sleuths!
I like the sleuths. I think it’s Margie that didn’t care for this one, but I can’t say for sure Carolee. I liked them in the first book, but have to admit there wasn’t any additional character development in this one.
I enjoyed both books and am sorry if she cannot continue to publish. I guess it depends on the contract. Amanda Flowers books are generally well done, I have read a few in two of her other series. A quick good cozy read.
I’m always interested, as a writer, when readers and reviewers complain about a lack of ongoing character development in a series. This is a modern thing. Nobody demanded that Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple “develop” more fully. Mysteries themselves are a fairly recent genre, so I guess the evolving expectations of readers are an indication of the entire genre’s development. What, exactly, do you like to see in terms of character development as a series goes on? I never gave it much thought as I wrote the Rachel Goddard books. I just wrote what was happening to her and how she reacted as Rachel moved through various situations. I don’t think she changes drastically — she is still basically the same person throughout. I don’t see noticeable changes in very many series leads. Their circumstances change. They don’t change much as people.
Sandra, Because we only “met” the characters in the first book, I expected a little more information about Darby and Troy in this one. And, there was little information about either of them, so a new reader picking up the book wouldn’t have understood who they were at all, although she did mention that Troy took over when Darby’s first partner, his aunt, died.
You’re right. It is a modern thing. And, I read Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple and John Dickson Carr’s books. And Kinsey Millhone certainly didn’t change much in the course of that series. It’s quite possible I was looking to see what more there was because of the reader’s complaint that she couldn’t identify with either character and didn’t care for them.
Dell Shannon’s Luis Mendoza didn’t really change as a character, although his life circumstances did. That’s probably true of many characters, if we even know that much about them. I think we expect most characters to change based on their experiences in previous books. That’s what makes me curious about these books since I doubt if Amanda will continue to write about Piper and Porter. Would their experiences have changed them in future books? We may never know.
Lesa — Although it may be difficult for authors to accept, there will always be readers who don’t like characters or can’t “identify” with them. No book appeals to everybody — unless, of course, it’s written by Louise Penny. 😄 And speaking of Louise, Gamache goes through some big changes in his professional life, but he remains the same, thank heaven. He doesn’t become hard and embittered as some police characters do.
Sandra, I’m afraid I disliked The Madness of Crowds. While I couldn’t say much on my blog without revealing spoilers (always a problem with Louise’s books), I admitted that one wasn’t for me, and let several close friends know how angry that one made me. So, I don’t think even Louise gets a free pass here.
I agree with Lesa on “Madness of Crowds,” and gave it a less-than-favorable review. No author is perfect and without one, or two, books that may let a reader down. One thing I do particularly like is that Gamache isn’t angst ridden. I find that gets old very quickly.
Clearly, if the author did not choose the obvious marketing idea, THE THAWED Detective and had the two solving something on an island somewhere, there would be war. That has to be the next book. Accept no other idea.
By the way, as a former Literature major (double with History) who had to write several papers on the subject for different courses from 88 to 1993, YES, some folks complained at the time about the lack of character development in the stories of Sherlock Holmes. They wrote letters of complaint to the various venues that published the works. Other authors dealt with the same sort of thing even earlier. This is NOT a modern problem. It just gets more attention now as everyone can be a critic.
Very interesting, Kevin. Thank you. I didn’t know that.