Review: Trouble Purse Sued (St. Polycarp #4)

Author: Marianna Heusler

Started reading: March 27th 2019

Finished the book: March 31st 2019

Pages: 259

Genres: Mystery, Crime

Published: May 3rd 2017

Source: Got a physical copy from the author

Goodreads score: Not enough ratings

My score:

Synopsis
After an unfortunate turn of events at St. Polycarp, Mrs. Johnson has been appointed as the interim principal of the school. The prospect that her role might become permanent deeped her anxiety but then she learned that she might end up with no job at all. Apparently the archdiocese was deciding whether to close St. Polycarp for good.
That's why when Mrs. Hopwood, her best friend and sleuthing partner in solving a series of unfortunate—murderous events—offers to donate some vintage clothing and accessories she recently inherited from her aunt Eunice to raise money for the school, Mrs. Johnson agrees.

The catch—a fashion show with students as the models—flyers, catalogues, online bids—another grand scheme hatched by Mrs. Hopwood that only gives Mrs. Johnson a bigger migraine and in true St. Polycarp fashion spurs a series of unfortunate events.

My thoughts

The mystery in this book was good, and the way the plot came together was enjoyable as well. I wasn't able to figure out who was the murderer and that's always a good thing. The characters and story around the mystery made me give the book 3 stars, I just didn't feel the connection.

Pros

• School: It was much fun to read a story from the perspective of teachers. I'm a teacher myself so a lot of things were recognizable for me. The book mainly took place in school as well. There are a lot of stories that take place in schools, but those books are usually the POV of one of the students. This was refreshing and fun to read.
• Plot twist: Somewhere around page 100 there was a BIG plot twist. It was so much fun to read this and it shook me. It also gave me the feeling anything was possible in this book and that made the book more fun to read.
• Pacing: The book doesn't contain any unnecessary information. I like the pacing and it was easy to read. Every chapter is important for this book and that's what made the book easy to get through!

Cons

• Atmosphere: In this book, the teachers all seem to hate their jobs. They are grumpy all the time and they don't like each other that much either. The ambience in this book made me dislike all the characters.
• Personalities: The characters are named Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Hopwood and no one is called by their first name. It created a huge distance between myself and the main characters. I also felt like they lacked personality, all they were was grumpy and bothered with themselves.

Overall

This book contains a mystery that's highly enjoyable. I'm curious if any of you would be able to figure it out. The book was easy to get through. I just gave it 3 stars because I didn't like any of the characters...

Thanks for reading!

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