LemonSky reviewed The Asey Mayo Trio by Phoebe Atwood Taylor (An Asey Mayo Cape Cod Mystery)
Review of 'The Asey Mayo Trio' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This is a good set of three Asey Mayo stories, though I found the last one a little weak.
"The Third Murderer" - The old Snow place is better known as the "Murder House" because it was the scene of two murders. Each time the house has been moved, a murder has been committed. Now the house is being moved a third time - and there's a third murder. Asey's cousin, Jennie Mayo, discovers the body of a young woman in a Dutch oven of the "Murder House." Asey finds a number of people would have been happy to see the last of the victim, but did any of them hate her enough to stab her to death? The puzzle is good and I didn't figure out who did it in this one. I was actually disappointed because I like the character, which shows you how good a writer Phoebe …
This is a good set of three Asey Mayo stories, though I found the last one a little weak.
"The Third Murderer" - The old Snow place is better known as the "Murder House" because it was the scene of two murders. Each time the house has been moved, a murder has been committed. Now the house is being moved a third time - and there's a third murder. Asey's cousin, Jennie Mayo, discovers the body of a young woman in a Dutch oven of the "Murder House." Asey finds a number of people would have been happy to see the last of the victim, but did any of them hate her enough to stab her to death? The puzzle is good and I didn't figure out who did it in this one. I was actually disappointed because I like the character, which shows you how good a writer Phoebe Atwood Taylor is. Jennie Mayo is amusing and surprisingly helpful (without knowing it), and her role as comedic relief is shared with Eddie "Little Arsenic" Pulster, the mischievous son of the man who is moving the "Murder House."
"Murder Rides the Gale" - A violent storm hits Cape Cod at the same time that 22 female students headed to the Merton Hall School for Girls fail to show up on time. This is during World War II and troop trains have upset the train schedule, so no one is quite sure where the girls are. Of course, Jennie Mayo is convinced her cousin Asey can find the girls without a hitch in time for the first day of classes. What Asey finds is a dead woman. Someone has killed the new teacher. Again, it turns out quite a few people would have been happy to see her dead. As usual, Jennie is both funny and helpful and the killer was someone I definitely did not suspect.
"The Stars Spell Death" - Asey Mayo is far from home now. He has been sent to deliver a message to Dr Oliver Heaslip at the Drum Observatory and try to convince the astronomer "to solve our lens problem on the experimental model the Signal Corps's howling for." This is during World War II and there is a blackout, which makes locating the observatory very difficult even for Asey. Once he finds the observatory, Asey discovers that Dr Heaslip won't be helping to solve the lens problem after all - he has been killed. This was a good mystery, but the supporting characters felt a little flat. There was a little too much posturing and hysteric going on. The strong point of the Asey Mayo stories is their down home flavor, which this one lacks.
Overall, a good trio of stories, but I recommend starting the series with one of the novels, such as [b:The Cape Cod Mystery|107503|The Cape Cod Mystery (Asey Mayo, #1)|Phoebe Atwood Taylor|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346092399s/107503.jpg|103610] or [b:The Annulet of Gilt|160729|The Annulet of Gilt|Phoebe Atwood Taylor|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346093216s/160729.jpg|155130].