Helpful Score: 2
Another laugh out loud tale about Mace, Maddie, Tyler and of course Mama. This series is quick and fun to read. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book "Mama Gets Hitched".
Bonnie A. (ladycholla) -
Helpful Score: 1
Again, another great story, 2nd in this series. Good characters, with some great history with this one. Good mystery also.
Helpful Score: 1
The second installment of the Mace Bauer series finds Mama, Mace and her sisters taking a horseback ride along the Cracker Trail. What was supposed to be a time for Mama and Mace to bond - turns into another murder investigation.
All of the characters from the first book return including Mace's sisters, Mama's fiance, and Mace's ex-beau Carlos. So, I would really recommend reading "Mama Does Time" first in order to familiarize yourself with this zany cast.
This one is definitely as good as the first, and will keep you guessing right up to the end. I look forward to the next in the series.
All of the characters from the first book return including Mace's sisters, Mama's fiance, and Mace's ex-beau Carlos. So, I would really recommend reading "Mama Does Time" first in order to familiarize yourself with this zany cast.
This one is definitely as good as the first, and will keep you guessing right up to the end. I look forward to the next in the series.
#2 Mace Bauer mystery, set in central Florida. Mace and her Mama are trying to do a little bonding by camping and riding the 120-mile Cracker Trail--the week-long ride an educational trek celebrating the ways of the old-time Florida cattlemen. On the first day of the ride, Lawton Bramble, one of the ranchers who was allowing them to camp on his land and providing vats of his famous Cow Hunter Chili, dies.
His much-younger wife comes upon him as he was presumably stirring up his chili and had a heart attack. (He was well-known to have a bad heart.) But Mace is suspicious--especially when she notices Lawton's gun which appeared to have dropped out of his hand when he died. Why would he have it so close to hand?
But old Doc, who treated Lawton, declares it a heart attack and that's that--until Lawton's kids start pointing fingers at their new stepmother and making noises that his death wasn't natural. Lawton, being a rich cattleman, has plenty of enemies. Mace's questioning Doc's diagnosis gets around of course and causes the expected attacks and attempted attacks on her person, but she's persistent (like many amateur sleuths, almost stupidly so) and eventually she solves the (very predictable) case.
In between, there was a lot of romancey hogwash--Mace's love interest from the last book who had moved back to Miami some time ago "just happens" to be on trail as well, and of course there's Lawton's son Trey, who was a big high school football star at Mace's high school, whom she ends up smooching with as well. It was just...silly. Lots of eye rolling on my part.
Mace is supposedly thirty-something years old, but she sure didn't act like she was much out of her teens.
The first book was kind of cute despite all the Southern talk and Mace's annoying, nosy, preachy, interfering Mama. This time it was just over the top. I actually liked Mace in the first book, but she seemed almost like a different person in this book. I skimmed the last hundred pages or so, but I won't be continuing on with the series. The dialogue, as with the first in series, doesn't sound very natural and the plot was scattered all over the place with just too many unbelievable coincidences needed to make it come together.
His much-younger wife comes upon him as he was presumably stirring up his chili and had a heart attack. (He was well-known to have a bad heart.) But Mace is suspicious--especially when she notices Lawton's gun which appeared to have dropped out of his hand when he died. Why would he have it so close to hand?
But old Doc, who treated Lawton, declares it a heart attack and that's that--until Lawton's kids start pointing fingers at their new stepmother and making noises that his death wasn't natural. Lawton, being a rich cattleman, has plenty of enemies. Mace's questioning Doc's diagnosis gets around of course and causes the expected attacks and attempted attacks on her person, but she's persistent (like many amateur sleuths, almost stupidly so) and eventually she solves the (very predictable) case.
In between, there was a lot of romancey hogwash--Mace's love interest from the last book who had moved back to Miami some time ago "just happens" to be on trail as well, and of course there's Lawton's son Trey, who was a big high school football star at Mace's high school, whom she ends up smooching with as well. It was just...silly. Lots of eye rolling on my part.
Mace is supposedly thirty-something years old, but she sure didn't act like she was much out of her teens.
The first book was kind of cute despite all the Southern talk and Mace's annoying, nosy, preachy, interfering Mama. This time it was just over the top. I actually liked Mace in the first book, but she seemed almost like a different person in this book. I skimmed the last hundred pages or so, but I won't be continuing on with the series. The dialogue, as with the first in series, doesn't sound very natural and the plot was scattered all over the place with just too many unbelievable coincidences needed to make it come together.
I totally enjoyed this book. Mama aka Rosalee and her boyfriends are a hoot! I also love that the title ends up being a play on words. You'll have to read the book to see what I'm talking about.
Mace, Rosalee's daughter, rides with Mama and her prospective husband on the Florida Cracker Trail. http://www.crackertrail.org/ The Florida Cracker Trail is an actual event that takes place. Mace is still unhappy after the end of a relationship. There's plenty to keep her occupied with the death of one of mama's old beaus, a jealous woman, handsome men, and suspicions.
Mace, Rosalee's daughter, rides with Mama and her prospective husband on the Florida Cracker Trail. http://www.crackertrail.org/ The Florida Cracker Trail is an actual event that takes place. Mace is still unhappy after the end of a relationship. There's plenty to keep her occupied with the death of one of mama's old beaus, a jealous woman, handsome men, and suspicions.
