Publisher's Weekly Review
In this breezy debut, Charles introduces Dawna Carpenter, a widow in her 60s who has taken over her family hardware business in downtown Pine Bluff, Ore., population 1,200. Pine Bluff is abuzz with gossip about Warren Highcastle, a real estate entrepreneur and ladies' man who has recently rolled into town to make an offer on its long-vacant opera house. Not long after Dawna witnesses a heated discussion between Highcastle and a local real estate agent, she finds the developer dead in the bathroom of her shop, done in by a hammer blow to the head. Aided by her youngest daughter, April, Dawna decides to investigate Highcastle's death, though she's overwhelmed by his many enemies and unsettled by the threats that come her way as soon as she starts poking around. For the most part, Charles goes easy on the investigation and heavy on trips to the local café for pie and coffee, conversations with the ghost of Dawna's husband, and supernatural visits from her deceased cat, Lilac. Pine Bluff is a charming place to escape for a while, but readers shouldn't expect many thrills, surprises, or even recipes. This one's strictly for die-hard cozy lovers. Agent: Dawn Dowdle, Blue Ridge. (Jan.)
Kirkus Review
A small-town hardware store owner turns sleuth when a man is found dead in her shop. Dawna Carpenter is a widow who talks to her husband and feels his presence, which isn't surprising, since she had a ghost as a childhood friend. She runs the store in Pine Bluff, Oregon, with the help of Steve Harrison, her only employee, who is uncharacteristically late for work one day. The neighboring store with which Carpenter's Corner shares a bathroom is a boutique owned by snarky Darlene Lovelace, who, when she runs into Dawna in the hallway, brags about a date she had with Warren Highcastle, the new man in town. Highcastle is planning to turn the old opera house into a hotel, among much controversy, but Darlene calls him "one interesting specimen." A little while later, Dawna finds Highcastle dead in the shared bathroom, beaten to death with a framing hammer. Police chief J.T. Dallas has a liking for Dawna's youngest daughter, April, who runs a design and restoration business, but unfortunately his first suspect is Bill Wilder, Dawna's late husband's best friend, although Steve--who finally turns up--is a close second. On top of that, Dawna gets a certified letter from a bank she's never dealt with saying the business owes $25,000. Certain that Bill is not the killer (even though his prints are on the murder weapon), she and April set out to prove it and soon have a list of suspects. A bit of research shows that Highcastle not only had a wife but left a long string of people cheated in crooked real estate deals in his wake. Scads of red herrings and mixed motives make for a puzzling mystery, never mind the mysterious bank loan. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The quiet of a late summer morning in rural Oregon is shattered when Dawna Carpenter finds a body in the bathroom off the hallway and back entrance her hardware store shares with a fancy boutique next door. The victim is the controversial developer who planned to turn the town's old theater into a hotel--and who was dating the boutique owner. Steve, Dawna's assistant, arrives late to work but before the police do, and he's acting nervous. But it is one of Dawna's friends, a local contractor, who is taken into custody, as his hammer was the weapon found by the body. The murder is the hot topic at an outdoor concert that weekend, with the speculation on the developer's dating habits, past projects, and current dealings yielding, in Dawna's mind, many suspects other than her friend. Then Steve is found shot. There being no obvious connection between the two murders, Dawna and her daughter dig deeper. Charles' debut is the first in the Hometown Hardware series.
