Details in the Document (The Inn at Holiday Bay #14) By Kathi Daley

A hurricane threatens Holiday Bay, and flooded roads cause major issues for travelers, leading to an unexpectedly full inn for Abby and Georgia.
A mysterious guest, as well as some unexpected land ownership with a macabre twist makes for an intriguing mystery or two for Abby and friends to figure out.
As with the previous books in this delightful series, there is not only mystery, but just the perfect amount of warmth, friendship and romance to make it a most satisfying and enjoyable read. Highly recommended. 126 As always I like this series, but this book ends with too many loose ends for my liking. The main crime is solved, but not really. The person who killed Abby's husband and son gives herself up, but that's it, no follow through. Nikki has a new boyfriend, but we find out nothing about him, etc. I don't enjoy when things are introduced without follow through.

Still I really like the book, the characters, the location, and the pets. I like how the relationships are progressing, but we need to know more about the other people in the relationships. I don't need details, but it would be nice to find out how the couples are doing and if they have future plans.

Looking forward to the next book when we may find out what Ben was investigating when he died and maybe Abby will get a letter from the person who was responsible for the accident. I'd like to find out more about the kidnapping too. 126 Details in the Document is the fourteenth book in Kathi Daley’s heartwarming The Inn at Holiday Bay series. The well-plotted storyline flows smoothly in this clean read, and there are lots of twists and red herrings in the complex mysteries contained within this book. The setting is charming, and the well-developed characters are three-dimensional, compassionate, and caring. I highly recommend this series to readers who enjoy well-crafted cozy mysteries.

After Abby Sullivan’s lost her husband and their infant son in a tragic accident, she moved to Holiday Bay, Maine, opened the Inn at Holiday Bay, made a new life for herself, and found a home and a family. Georgia Carter, who has also overcome obstacles in her life, is the inn’s talented cook/baker and manager, and she and her Newfoundland dog, Ramos, live with Abby, Rufus, a Maine Coon, and Molly, a terrier mix, in a cottage on the property. Georgia’s cable cooking show, Cooking with Georgia, is doing very well. Jeremy Slater, who lives in the inn’s basement apartment with his young niece, Annabelle, is a valuable asset who helps with the inn’s day-to-day operations.

In this installment, the inn has been closed to guests for two weeks so Abby, Georgia, and Jeremy can do a thorough cleaning and make minor repairs, but as a hurricane approaches Holiday Bay and roads are closed, stranded motorists seek shelter, and the inn is fuller than it’s ever been. After being contacted by the phone company, Abby learns that in addition to the property where the inn is located, she’s the owner of a one hundred acre parcel of basically useless land. Georgia’s boyfriend, Tanner, accompanies Abby and Georgia to look at the property, and while there, Georgia makes a gruesome discovery. Police Chief Colt Wilder, who is also Abby’s boyfriend, has his hands full trying to locate residents who went missing during the storm, as well as a new murder to solve.
126 In this next book of the series the gang is looking forward to some time off from guests so they can get some work done around the Inn. The time off goes out the window when a hurricane hits filling the inn with stranded motorists. Abby is happy to help those in need but has a guest who is acting strange. When he is gone right after the hurricane she wonders what the man was all about. She soon learns that he has been found dead, shot. Abby wants to help figure out what brought the man to Holiday Bay and who would want him dead. Meanwhile she learns she owns a plot of land that she didn't know was part of the deal when she bought the inn. To make matters worse quite a few dead bodies were found on said land. It looks like a serial killer used the site as a burial spot. As things come to a head Abby learns some information about the accident.that killed her husband and child. Follow along as Abby tries to make sense of all that is going, hoping she'll be able to help bring things to an end and make peace with the past. 126 A very interesting and detailed book involving a hurricane, missing people, a birth and a murder. Having survived hurricanes in my younger years, this brought back lots of memories. I felt like I was living through another one. I felt the closeness that comes when you are living through the dangers with strangers. This is a fabulous book!

I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. 126

Kathi Daley ☆ 3 download

A heartwarming cozy mystery series about losing everything, taking a chance, and starting again.

After suffering a personal tragedy Abby Sullivan buys a huge old seaside mansion she has never even seen, packs up her life in San Francisco, and moves to Holiday Bay Maine, where she is adopted, quite against her will, by a huge Maine Coon Cat named Rufus, a drifter with her own tragic past named Georgia, and a giant dog with an inferiority complex named Ramos. What Abby thought she needed was alone time to heal. What she ended up with was, an inn she never knew she wanted, a cat she couldn't seem to convince to leave, and a new family she'd never be able to live without.

In book 14 in the series, Abby finds out that she owns a small plot of land that was linked by deed to the land where the inn now sits. The deed linking the two parcels of land had been created even before Chamberlain Westminster bought it, and since the plot was basically worthless, it had been more than a century since anyone had paid a bit of attention to it. Until now that is.

Meanwhile a whole new group of guests check into the inn each with their own story to tell. Details in the Document (The Inn at Holiday Bay #14)

At The Inn at Holiday Bay, owner Abby Sullivan, business partner Georgia Carter and their employees plan to spend a quiet, guest-free week catching up on maintenance before their next big rush. But when a hurricane hits nearby, closing the roads, the inn is over-full with guests, including a pregnant woman and her husband, a group of cheerleaders, and a mysterious man with a bag of cash and a gun.

This time the mystery has two parts -- who is this mysterious man who is stuck at the Inn with everyone during the hurricane, and later, who killed him. That adds another layer to an otherwise ordinary mystery, but it's still not enough. While I love the interpersonal interactions between the characters, in this one, the murder mystery seems like an afterthought. If the author had gone into more depth on the plot behind the murder, this would have been a much better book. 126 Details in the Document earns 4.5/5 Stranded Guests...Engaging Fun!

After resolving the emotional storm of learning the woman who caused the accident that killed her husband and young child has come forward, Abby turns her attentions to the hurricane on the horizon. Literally. There are no reservations set for the week, so Inn-mates busy themselves prepping the Inn by boarding things up and put things away. The storm drops buckets of water causing road closures, so the empty Inn filled up to brimming with several unexpected guests: one very pregnant, several underage, and another with a gun! But, it’s after the storm that provides the biggest mystery. An unidentified gunshot victim is found on a nearby beach, and while investigating a large piece of property Abby previously was unaware she owned, a skull, well several skulls are uncovered. Mysteries...what d’ya tell you!

Kathi Daley has done very well to keep and increase her fan base with The Inn at Holiday Bay series. Those who like a suspicious death turned felonious with their mystery, don’ t give up, it is there. Late in the drama a gunshot victim is found with a surprising identity and shocking story that leads to an “Oh, no!” moment. However, mysteries abound when a mass burial site is also uncovered adding more Who-s? What-s? Why-s? A good portion of the reading journey is taken up by revisiting the accident that killed Abby’s husband and child, prepping for and living through the Cat-2 hurricane, the suspicious man staying in the attic suite, the first birth at the Inn, a lucrative offer to buy Abby’s property, and everyday events, concerns, and issues. It’s realistic that everything in the book doesn’t take place in the presence of or instigated by the main character, but as a reader, I’d like more involvement with those mysteries thru eavesdropping on phone conversations, spying on clandestine meetings, and listening to interviews. Some of the “cozy mystery” is lost when these events occur off the page. However, I enjoy every time meeting up with Abby enjoying how Kathi Daley has created a well-rounded, strong female character who is a survivor along with her friends, her relationship with Colt, other relationships growing, weddings being planned, and the future painted as bright. 126 In sole 130 pagine circa succede di tutto, di più: a volte mi dispiace che i libri di questa autrice siano in generale così corti perché chissà cosa sarebbe capace di scrivere se desse alle storie un po' più di spazio... Comunque sia, devo ancora trovare una sua serie che non mi piaccia, sebbene abbia scartato quelle che mi ispirano di meno ;-O 126 This was another first rate mystery by Ms. Daley. I feel like I've become friends with Abby, Georgia, Jeremy and Colt as I've read every book in the series. This book as more than one story to tell as Holiday Bay is threatened by a hurricane, people are stranded at the inn due to road closures and a mysterious guest seems to be hiding a secret. A quickly paced plot and deft twists and turns kept me reading until I reached the end. 126 3.5 stars, but I'll round up to 4 because I like this series so much. I enjoyed this one, but it felt like a springboard basically just existing to introduce new plot points for future books. And as such, I feel a bit unfulfilled and as a whole, the story felt like it never really came together. The main plot about the inn's guest who was acting strangely and later found shot on the beach after the storm and dying soon after was a good plot but I felt like it was shoved into the background, and other smaller/less important things were given more space instead, like the bones recovered from the plot of land Abby didn't even know she owned - which also led to a lot of pages on expanding the inn. That stuff should be in the background, not eclipsing the main plot. I did like that Abby finally got resolution about the death of her husband and son.

I also questioned the hurricane as a plot device. The book is set in late spring (I'm guessing late April or early May) and there was a hurricane. Hurricane season is June 1st through November 1st, but really doesn't get cranking until late summer/September. So how was there a hurricane racing up the coast before hurricane season even started? Hmm...looked it up, in the entire history of tracking storms, only 2 were before June 1st, one in 1887 and one in 1951, so I guess it's possible but unlikely.

Did I love the book? Sure, I look forward to each one and devour it in one evening but I'd say it's not one of my favorites and I'd probably skip it on a re-read. 126