When Trish Cunningham makes a trip to the local grocery store in Murder in the Milk Case by Candice Prentice, she reaches into the milk case and finds the body of a dead man. Jim Bob Jenkins lies inside a shopping cart stabbed. The man seems to have been a blackmailer, having made overtures to Trish over a crime her brother, now in Navy boot camp, might have committed years earlier that led to the death of the first wife of Trish’s husband, Max. This detail adds to Trish’s stress and the possibility of her as a suspect. She thus determines to find the truth and starts asking questions and taking notes.
Trish gets tremendous stress from her involvement in the investigation, as well as the strain of being afraid to tell her husband that the only reason they are married might be because of her brother’s possible crime. In the process her marriage and her spiritual life start to disintegrate. Adding to the strain is the recent resentment of 15- year- old Karen over the fact that Trish is not Karen’s “real mother.” Will Trish and Max survive in their marriage and in their lives as Trish continues to poke her nose where it doesn’t belong?
This book is labeled a “Christian cozy mystery,” but it doesn’t really seem to fit this genre. Actually, it doesn’t really fit well into any set genre. The mystery exists, but it works mostly to serve as a framework for the drama between Trish and her husband Max and also with Karen, the second of Trish’s three step- children, in addition to one of the couple’s own. We watch as first Trish and then Max fall to pieces and how that affects their married life. The mystery comes up sometimes, but it is not the main focus of the book.
I enjoyed the narrative performance of Melissa Moran in the audiobook. She uses good voices and accents for each character. I also liked her use of inflections to describe the actions in the book.
I would have enjoyed Murder in the Milk Case much better if it had been marketed as a Christian drama with bits of mystery, but since I was expecting more of a mystery, I found myself disappointed. I did like the depiction of the characters and what mystery plot existed. For a mystery, I give the book three stars, but as a drama, I give it four.
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