Have Yourself a Beary Little Murder (Shamelessly Adorable Teddy Bear Mystery #3) by Meg Macy #bookreview #mystery

Title: Have Yourself a Beary Little Murder

Author: Meg Macy

Publisher: Kensington Books

Publication Date: September 24, 2019

Page Count: 304

My rating: 3 1/2 stars

About the book:

This holiday season, teddy bear shop manager Sasha Silverman must solve the slaying of Santa Bear . . .

Sasha and her sister Maddie are thrilled that the Silver Bear Shop and Factory has won the Teddy Bear Keepsake Contest, which means they get to produce a holiday specialty toy, a wizard bear named “Beary Potter.” Promising to be just as magical is Silver Hollow’s annual tree-lighting ceremony and village parade. Only one hitch: the parade’s mascot, Santa Bear—played by Mayor Cal Bloom—is missing.

After a frantic search among the floats, Bloom is found dead. When the outfit is removed, it’s clear the mayor’s been electrocuted. Who zapped hizzoner and then stuffed him into his Santa Bear suit? While the police investigate the grisly crime, Sasha attempts to track down the murderer herself, with some help from the Guilty Pleasures Gossip Club. Can they wrap up this case in time for Christmas—or will Sasha meet her own shocking end?

Have Yourself a Beary Little Murder by Meg Macy is the third installment of the cozy Shamelessly Adorable Teddy Bear Mystery series. Each book of this series like most cozies contains it’s own mystery within that will be solved so they can be read as a standalone or in any order if choosing to do so. However, there is some character development that carries over book to book for those reading in order.

The first book of this series introduced Sasha Silverman who after her divorce became the manager of the Silver Bear Shop and Factory which is like a build a bear type of business. Sasha’s parents own the bear factory in the town of Silver Hollow but had retired from working the business turning  over the day to day operations to Sasha.

Now Sasha and her sister Maddie are working hard to produce a special bear for the holidays after the Silver Bear Shop and Factory had won the Teddy Bear Keepsake Contest. With a whole holiday festival happening in Silver Hollow things have been  rather hectic but when  the town mascot Santa Bear is found murdered Sasha finds herself again investigating.

The setting in this series is one of the best things about it, a small town family owned shop that makes and sells teddy bears and caters events centered around them which gives a rather fun vibe. As usual though I sometimes find these a bit slower paced which perhaps could be from a lack of overly quirkiness I enjoy but they are still solid cozy reads in which I’d rate this time at 3 1/2 stars.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online: 

Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author:

Award-winning mystery author Meg Macy lives in Southeast Michigan, close ​enough ​to Ann Arbor, Chelsea, and Dexter — the setting of her “Shamelessly Adorable Teddy Bear” cozy mysteries for Kensington. She is also one-half of the writing team of D.E. Ireland for the Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins mysteries; two books​, Wouldn’t It Be Deadly and Get Me to the Grave On Time​ ​were​ Agatha Award finalists​ for Best Historical​. Meg’s first published book, Double Crossing, won the 2012 Best First Novel Spur Award from Western Writers of America. Meg loves reading historical and cozy mysteries, gardening, crafts, and watercolor painting.