Bundle of Trouble by Diana Orgain

#1 in the Maternal Instincts Mystery series
Copyright: 2009
Publisher:  Berkley Prime Crime
Genre: Mystery
Pages:  296
Challenges: Cozy Mystery
New-to-me Author: yes
Author's Website 


 Simple Description: 
Kate and her husband Jeff receive a call from the local medical examiner's office.  Do they know where Jeff's brother, Charlie, is?  Because they have a dead body that was found in the water close to were Charlie's bags were found.   If this news wasn't enough to get them upset, Kate happens to go into labor right after the call is received.  Luckily, they have a healthy baby girl and they find out the body does not belong to Charlie.

The bad news is that somehow Charlie is involved with the murdered man.  When Kate picks up the bags from the medical examiner's office she runs into an old highschool friend, Michelle.  Unfortunately Michelle was married to the murdered man and she feels that her life is in danger as well.    Then Michelle turns up dead, some think it's suicide but Kate knows it was murder.   Can she find the murder and clear Charlie's name? At the same time..can she find a job that will allow her to work from home because she really doesn't want to leave her new baby girl and head back to work.  Could she possible become a private investigator?  Hmmm...maybe she could get paid for digging into this current murder.

 Now what you really want to know....my thoughts: 
I thought this was a fun cozy mystery and is definitely one that I think cozy mystery fans will enjoy.  While I can't relate to the joys (and struggles!) of being a new Mom, I'm sure many of you can relate with what she is going through and how she has to return to work but doesn't want to leave her baby girl.  I think this could be a fun part of the book for most mothers.  For me, it was a bit hard at times but that's due to me not being a Mom yet and going through some personal struggles on that front (which I don't want to bother you all with on a book blog).  I don't think it has anything to do with the actually story, so it shouldn't be something that will turn people off. I mention it only because in a way it did effect how much I enjoyed the book but I also knew it would be a factor when I started to read it.  I probably could get away with not even mentioning that in the review, but at the same time I want to be fully honest with my readers (even though I'm not going to go into the total personal side of why).

Back to the story!

I think Kate is a really fun character. I loved her relationship with her husband, Jeff.  You can't help liking Kate's Mom too (who likes to knit things for the baby..even if the colors aren't always that great).

Kate doesn't always ask the right questions when doing the investigation and finds out info by accident, but that's to be expected since she has never done any of this.  I liked that she was disappointed with how she didn't always get info when she thought she would and felt she messed up interviews sometimes.  To me this just made her situation as an armature detective more real.  I also  think the author had a good mixture of Kate doing the investigating and Kate doing Mom/Baby stuff.

I already have the 2nd book in the series and do plan to read it.  I'm not sure if I'll get to it right away but hopefully I will be the end of the cozy mystery series.   This one, the first, is definitely a good start to a new (to me!) cozy mystery series.


Oh..and I don't have my rating images all figured out yet or anything on my side bar, but if I was going to rate it, it would be 4 out of 5 stars.


 This book is part of my collection and was given to me by my friend Nancy with Bookfoolery and Babble.  I believe she got the copy to review and after she read it she sent it to me because she knows I'm a cozy mystery fan.  Thanks again for the book Nancy!