Book Review: Suspect by Kristin Wolden Nitz


Jen is asked to spend the summer helping out at her grandmother Kay's bed and breakfast, and finds out Kay suspects Jen’s mother didn’t disappear but was murdered. Kay uses her annual mystery dinner theatre weekend to try to get to the bottom of the case.

This is a short, satisfying teen mystery that would definitely be classified in the cozy genre.  Although the focus is possible murder of the main character’s mother, there is nothing disturbing or overly emotional about the novel.  The tone is light for the most part as the various characters converge at the bed and breakfast – all of them ready for a fun weekend of play-acting, most not realizing there could be a killer in their midst.

Though my favorite part was probably the setting, I also really enjoyed the relationship between Jen and her “uncousin” Mark.  Ok, so it might have been because it got me thinking about George Michael and Maeby’s “forbidden cousin love” on Arrested Development (one of my favorite series ever!) and I couldn’t help suspecting it might the author paying homage.


This line was always going through my head whenever I read the word “uncousin”:

"It was a love between two cousins that the world thought was wrong, but it was the world that was wrong..." (from the fictitious movie Les Cousins Dangereux (a.k.a Dangerous Cousins) that George Michael sneaks into with Maeby on an episode of Arrested Development)

If you’re looking for breezy mystery with an engaging setting and characters, then SUSPECT might just do the trick.

SUSPECT is available in hardcover now. Find out more about it at the publisher's website.

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