Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC. Someone's Mad at the Hatter satisfies the basic elements of a cozy - likeable, amateur, small-business-owning sleuth, small-town setting, sidebar romantic storyline - and in that regard, will probably please most cozy readers

Murder with Southern Charm
Someone's Mad at the Hatter is the third book in Sandra Bretting’s Missy DuBois Mystery series. There are lots of red herrings and twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. I love the Louisiana setting and the Southern charm and humor in this book.

Melissa “Missy” DuBois is a custom hat maker and her best friend, beau, and roommate, Ambrose “Bo” Jackson, is a wedding gown designer. It’s New Year’s Day and Missy and Bo are attending Mr. Dupree’s New Year’s Day Breakfast at Sweetwater mansion and he encourages her to eat some of the good-luck black-eyed peas, but she doesn’t. Maybe she should have because when she arrives at her shop, Crowning Glory, she discovers the body of Charlotte Deveraux, a professional wedding planner, inside a whiskey barrel in the employee parking lot and the police find the murder weapon, a rain gauge she made out of a hat stand, in the trash can. Rumors fly in a small town and clients start calling to cancel their appointments. Charlotte was planning to expand her wedding planning business, Happily Ever After Events, which upset many of the local vendors, some of whom may have been forced out of business. Missy helps Officer Lance LaPorte with his investigation, determined to clear her name and capture the culprit.

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

Sip a mug of tea, hot chocolate, or coffee, and relax in a comfy space and enjoy the third adventure with hat designer, Missy DuBois, and her beau, Ambrose Jackson, a wedding dress designer extraordinaire! Missy never dreams she'll find a woman's body stuffed inside a rain barrel outside her studio, but that's shockingly what happens! The fact that one of her creative designs is the murder weapon casts a bad light over her business as she's shunned by fellow members of the Southern Wedding Planners Association. Add to the fact that the victim was preparing a major expansion to her wedding planning business that could have very well put other members out of business and somebody had a great motive for her demise. When Missy's clients start cancelling appointments she knows she has to put on her sleuthing hat and solve this mystery before her doors are the ones to close for good.

Author Sandra Bretting gussies up a great Southern setting mystery filled with red herrings to keep you guessing whodunit. I look forward to reading forth book in this series.

I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

A nice cosy mystery with a hint of romance. This book shows that good looks don't always mean the person is a caring, loving person.

The mystery had me guessing a couple of different people being the guilty party before the reveal.

Will leave a review on Amazon under name of Connie

This is a neat series that keeps on entertaining. If you enjoy light, southern, sassy amateur sleuths you'll love this book. I know I did. Thanks NetGalley and publisher for an advance copy. Looking forward to the next in series.

I had not read any of this author's work before, but quite enjoyed this New Year's mystery (a holiday that you don't see much in mysteries). Loved the descriptive writing that kept me chucking as I was reading along and I could almost see the hat stand as described. I'll be checking more of this author out.

This is a typical, average cozy mystery. The main character's colloquialisms are a little annoying, and the way the policeman handles the case is unrealistic, but again, typical for a cozy.

A delightful mystery, full of southern charm. When Missy Dubois goes into her designer headpiece studio on new Year's Day, she finds the body of wedding planner Charlotte Deveraux pushed into a rain barrel she Missy had stashed in the back. Charlotte had been hit on the head with one of Missy's headpiece mannikans that she had left out to measure the rainfall. Missy calls her detective friend Lance, with whom she has solved two previous murder investigations, and together they embark upon investigating this crime. Was Charlotte killed because she wanted to expand her business and thereby put wedding bakers and photographers out of business? Was it because her partner/cousin Paxton wanted to sell the business and she didn't? Why was the french door to Missy's shop destroyed? This mystery has more than enough suspects and plot twists to keep you guessing all the way through. In addition there is just a touch of romance as Missy's relationship with wedding dress designer Ambrose keeps growing. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to any lover of cozy mysteries.