Death in a Cold Hard Light (A Merry Folger Nantucket Mystery) Paperback – May 9, 2017

So great if you love Nantucket

I love this series. Ms . Matthews has a way of describing a region of the country that makes me want to pull up stakes & move to Nantucket. Her characters have a very believable quality to them. In addition, the mystery aspect is always well written . I look forward to many more Merry Folger installments.

There is not a Merry Folger mystery I don't read from start to finish in one sitting!

Her best Francine Matthews mystery yet, and I have read all 4!

Looking for a beach book, I came across several of this author’s works in Manteo. I like the Merry Folger detective but dislike her easy abandon of her fiancé in order to do work her dad should have done. Then she declines to reconnect with him as though he left her.She seems to accidentally moves through suspects, not really perceptive. I am on page 228 and do not have a feel for the town’s characters. But there has been murder! The plot is shaping up. The suspects are getting shadier and her fiancé puts himself back in the scene.

I'm loving this series, but this was not my favorite in the series. Kind of depressing and it had more drama than mystery.

I have read all of Stephanie Barron's (AKA Francine Mathews) Jane Austin series. I absolutely loved them. I just completed The White Garden written as Stephanie Barron; even though it was so much like Da Vinci Code 2.0, I was very favorably impressed and could hardly put it down! I have read all of the Merry Folger books in order and just completed reading In A Cold Hard Light. Talk about putting or not putting it down- I'd think "Gosh is that the doorbell? Better check." "I think I hear the bird chirping, I had better check to see if he needs more birdseed." Maybe the author should have entitled this book: "Daddy Dearest". It was not plot driven-I felt as though I was on a canoe rowing in molasses. It was very difficult to keep on reading it. The murder and its solution was secondary to Merry's issues with her father. Very disappointing. I don't feel inclined to read the next book in the series. I am very eager to read the next Stephanie Barron novel. I think this very talented author should stick to historical novels - she excels in that area, the present day murder mystery-not so much.

Good story but not what was expected. Very detailed characters and vivid description of Nantucket in the winter. Desperate choices are made.