Ghastly Glass: 01/05/21

Ghastly Glass by Joyce Lavene and Jim Lavene is the second book in the Renaissance Faire mystery series. I read it back in March at a time when I still had a sizable backlog of reviews to post. Book two slipped through the cracks until I posted the review of the third book, Ghastly Glass.

In this one, Jessie Morton is apprenticing to the park's glassblower. But he's an ass and his nephew is a creep. And then the man playing the Grim Reaper is murdered, giving Jessie a well needed distraction.

This particular mystery is eighty percent red herrings, fifteen percent utter nonsense, and five percent actual mystery. The murderer in their introductory scene practically announces their involvement in the crime. The murderer is blatantly obvious in the first fifty pages and the remainder of the book is just filler.

The series is set up on the premise that Jessie can apprentice at different jobs in the park for her research. All of these jobs require a certain amount of expertise and it's hard to believe that anyone would be allowed to apprentice without any sort of preparation. Book two and three's experts, are experts only by informed attribute. Neither of them actually demonstrate the skills or knowledge to mentor Jessie or anyone else. Maybe that's why she keeps getting these apprenticeships?

Three stars

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