HALLOW:
A FRACTURED FAMILY TALE
A Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery, Book #5
by M.R. Dimond
Mystery / Cozy Mystery / Lawyers & Criminals Humor
Publisher: Rock Rose Press
Pages: 321
Publication Date: May 30, 2024
SYNOPSIS
Family: What you don’t know can kill you.
Young Texas attorney JD Thompson enjoys his life in a small Texas town, where he lives with his ABBA tribute band, college roommates, and seventy black cats that his veterinarian partner rescued before Halloween. Probate cases with inheritance squabbles leave him time to help family members, like when his grandfather receives a surprising present from the past. But the squabbles turn deadly, the present isn’t a gift, and the lovely woman who captures his heart isn’t what she seems. As he stands in ashes with murder on the doorstep, JD races to defend his client, his family, and his home. Can he untangle the dark secrets threatening to destroy everything he holds dear? The walls are already splattered with blood.
Join JD and the quirky Black Orchid Enterprises gang in their fifth Texas mystery as the holiday season rolls in—fall holidays, that is, from High Holy Days to Thanksgiving.
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Hallow is the fifth book in M. R. Dimond’s Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery series, and the first I’ve read. I was able to follow along pretty well, but this book was so enchanting, I’ve got to go read the first four and get to know the characters from the start!
Black Orchid Enterprises is the business endeavor of J.D., Dianne, and Johnny. (And suddenly I find myself thinking of “Jack and Diane” by John Cougar Mellencamp, even though J.D.’s name is not Jack.) They work and live in Gregg House. They’re friends – more like an unconventional family, really – and their professional lives often intersect and overlap in surprising ways. Gregg House is a community fixture, known for their celebrations of just about every event and season. Here we see them hosting events for the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth and the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos. I would imagine these parties would be some big to-dos even without the events of the mysteries that are unfolding.
Yes, mysteries. This story is chock full of them! You’ve got the murder mystery, of course, with a murder that comes surprisingly late in the book. But J.D. also learns that his grandfather may have had a child with Peggy Porter, the girlfriend he was never able to locate after he returned from the war. Armed with a puzzle box and a name and little else, J. D. tries to pin down the fate of the elusive Peggy. Then there’s Vidal Abreu, looking to protect his inheritance from his unruly mess of half-siblings and the curious DNA test his daughter took. Who’s part of whose family here?
Now, at first I was not enthralled. It took me a little bit to really get into the book. There were multiple story threads to follow, I wasn’t sure how they all connected, and it felt like a bit much to follow. But if you’re reading and feeling this same way, I encourage you to persevere!
Dimond gives us a host of well-written characters, some appealing, some not so much. Johnny may have been my favorite, with his love for animals and investment in their rescue. I share his fondness for cats, and I loved that he tried so hard to protect all the black cats around Halloween!
The more I read, the more I loved this book. The stories unfolded and intertwined, family was lost, family was found, longstanding mysteries were resolved, and I was a little sad to turn the last page. I hope there’s more to come in this series, because I think I’ve fallen in love a little with the residents of Gregg House and all the shenanigans they get up to!
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BOOK TRAILER
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After stints in professional orchestras, law firms, cat rescue, bookkeeping, and technical communication, M. R. Dimond returned to a childhood dream of writing fiction, which has turned out to be about musicians, lawyers, veterinarians, accountants, and cats. Her Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery series, set in her near-native Texas, currently contains five novels with more soon to come.
She has had short fiction published in Strange Horizons, Dancing USA, and various anthologies (most recently in Dreaming the Goddess; Hook, Line, and Sinker; and Riddles, Resolutions, and Revenge), as well as nonfiction articles in various publications.
She holds an MBA from University of Tulsa and is a veteran of writing workshops, including Clarion, Viable Paradise, Jim Gunn’s Center for Science Fiction, and Taos Toolbox. She lives in the wilderness east of Austin, Texas, with her husband and many foster cats.
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I really enjoyed your review. It made me want to read the book again, and as the author, I’ve read it quite a few times already. Book 6, Stealing Saints, should be out in time for the winter holidays. If you liked what the Black Orchid crew did with the fall holidays, you’ll love what they do to Christmas.
Oh, yay, there’s more in the series! The way this one ended, I was a tiny bit afraid that would be the series close. I’ll be anxiously awaiting book 6 and the Christmas shenanigans!
Great review, Lisa! I like your advice to stick with it because how it all turns out is worth the wait. I got the first book in this series and am going to start from there. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.