Book Review: Past & Present by Judy Penz Sheluk

Past & Present: A Marketville Mystery by Judy Penz Sheluk
Narrator: Kelli Lindsay
Series: A Marketville Mystery #2
Published by Self-published on 04-08-19
Genres: Cozy Mystery, Mystery
Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
Format: Audiobook
Source: Author
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Sometimes the past reaches out to the present...It’s been thirteen months since Calamity (Callie) Barnstable inherited a house in Marketville under the condition that she search for the person who murdered her mother thirty years earlier. She solves the mystery, but what next? Unemployment? Another nine-to-five job in Toronto? Callie decides to set down roots in Marketville, take the skills and knowledge she acquired over the past year, and start her own business: Past & Present Investigations.It’s not long before Callie and her new business partner, best friend Chantelle Marchand, get their first client: a woman who wants to find out everything she can about her grandmother, Anneliese Prei, and how she came to a “bad end” in 1956. It sounds like a perfect first assignment. Except for one thing: Anneliese’s past winds its way into Callie’s present, and not in a manner anyone—least of all Callie—could have predicted.

This is a sequel to Skeletons in the Attic. It could be also read as a standalone, but the many references to the first book will this one more pleasurable if we are familiar with the story. Callie, Calamity, has gained some experience investigating the past, and decides to create an agency, along with her friend Chantelle, specialized to investigate past events. Their first client wants to find who killed her grandmother in 1956, when her own mother was still a child.

This was a different and creative cozy mystery, in which the murder has happened several decades ago, and the only means of investigation are old articles and the memory of several people. Callie will discover that the mystery is closer to her than what she thought at first, and that omissions are not lies but their goal might be the same: protecting someone who cannot forgive themself.

I greatly enjoyed the story, with all its twists and turns, and I found the way of investigating the past quite interesting. I think there are many real references to how it can be done in Canada, so I believe Judy Penz Sheluk spent a great amount of time researching this.

There was a small paranormal aspect added to the story. I have to say that this was the part I liked the least. I don’t mind that when paranormal situations are added just for effect, but I believe they should not have any real value in an investigation.

This book is narrated by a different person than book one. Kelli Lindsay’s style is similar to her predecessor, and although there are a couple of noticeable audio edits, the overall audio production has a higher quality. Lindsay did a great job bringing the characters to life by transmitting their emotions, and keeping their voices and styles consistent and different enough to make dialogs easy to follow.

Another beautifully written cozy mystery by Judy Penz Sheluk, I am already looking forward to the next one.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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