A great book by a fantastic author. The writing is excellent and the mystery keeps you turning the pages. Characters are well developed. Highly recommend.

Sophie (Phee) Kimball has moved from Minnesota to Arizona to be closer to her Mother Harriet. She is working as an accountant for a former police detective she knew in Minnesota Nate Williams. That job is going ok but her Mom and Aunt Ina are driving her nuts. Her Aunt Ina is getting married at 74 and has pretty much forced Phee into doing a lot of the wedding planning. Harriet and Ina’s antics are hilarious and there are a couple of murders thrown in that need to be solved. Highly entertaining read.

Phee has to solve another murder without much guidance from her PI boso as he is working another case. Phee's aunt is getting married and the groom knows the dead guy. Phee wants to solve the murder to make sure her aunts wedding goes smoothly (especially since she's ban put in charge of so much of the planning). So Phee needs to solve a murder and plan a wedding, talk about being busy!
I received an advanced copy from Netgalley for an honest review

I enjoyed the plot, characters, and location of the story. This is a great sophomore edition to the series, the Sofie Kimball Mystery series. Sofie, a.k.a. Phee has moved to Arizona. With that come the joys of family and constant contact. Sophie is now a wedding planner for Aunt Ina’s wedding. There is more than one dead body in this story. Read to find out if they are connected and are the murder(s) caught?
The authors were able to capture the Arizona retirement community lifestyle and thought processes of many that have relocated to that state. I received this from book from netgalley and would like to thank the publishers, netgalley, and the writer.

This is the second book in the Sophie Kimball Mystery Series. I do recommend the entire series however this book can read as a stand alone.
Sophie Kimball works for a Private Detective Agency and is a whip smart protagonist. . Her friends and family tend to ask her to work for them which leads to hilarious encounters and much humor throughout. A missing groom, a mystery surrounding the wedding and her ever present wacky relatives lead Sophie on a fun escape in this book. I appreciate the humor , the wonderful characters and how fun these books are to read. Throughout the laughter you will find a well crafted mystery that surprises many a reader to the end. Well Done.
Thank you for the ARC which did not influence my review.

J.C. Eaton has fast become one of my new favorite cozy mystery authors, their books are so fun to read! 

Sophie "Phee" Kimball has officially moved to Arizona to work for her friend Nate who has retired as a cop and now working as a private investigator. Phee does the bookkeeping for him as well as answer the phone when their part-time secretary isn't in and she doesn't mind it at all except for the heat. 

The only bad part is that she lives so close to her eccentric mother and her Booked 4 Murder club friends. She also lives close to her Aunt Ina who is planning her wedding. Who knew there could be a 76 year old bridzilla but Phee gets rapped up in doing things for her aunt. It starts out with picking out the desserts, then the tent and just keeps piling on but that isn't the only thing because of course murder has to be thrown in there as well. 

It starts out with Nate getting a job helping the police because of a suspicious death that ends up being near Phee's mother so of course she calls frantic cause there is a killer on the loose, then the owner of the restaurant that her aunt picked gets killed and it is looking suspicious too. If that is not bad it seems her aunts fiance knew both victims and has disappeared. 

Nate is real busy with his workload and they he has to try and find Louis so when Phee gets some information she does a little sleuthing herself and finds out a lot of information.

The characters in this series just crack me up! I like Phee but she is very much the bumbling detective and will admit that she is not a good investigator and doesn't really want to be one either but gets roped into it by her mother. I like Nate, he is a good friend to Sophie and a good investigator. It's all the other characters that I love! Harriet and her book club friends are so much fun and always getting into some sort of mess, especially with this wedding.

The wedding! I laughed so hard towards the end when the wedding happens cause of course things don't go according to plan. The bat scene alone had me laughing because it reminded me of a friends story about a bat. :) 

It has a really good mystery and I pretty much had most of it figured out. I kept waiting for Phee to figure out who one was cause I got it pretty easily, the other murder I kept going back and forth on. Since Nate is overloaded with work he is bringing in a new investigator and I am thinking maybe some sparks will fly with him and Phee, since she has had a crush on him for a while. Can't wait to get the next one and find out!! 

If you haven't tried Booked 4 Murder (the first book) then you really need too, although you can read this one as a stand alone but the first one sets up things rather nicely and it's so funny!

I love this cozy series, Sophie Kimball, set in Arizona. Sophie works as an account for a Private Investigator and gets dragged into his newest case, the murder of a wealthy man on a golf course. As she helps Nate with the murder, her aunt makes Sophie her wedding planner. How hard can it be to plan a 74 year olds wedding. The story is funny and the humor has you laughing out loud. Who figured bats would like pastry. I love the cast of characters and Sophie's mom is a hoot. Don't need to read book 1, Booked 4 Murder first, but you'll want to.

Ditched 4 Murder by J.C. Eaton is the second book in the Sophie Kimball Mystery series. Sophie (Phee) is living full time in Arizona but with a bit of space from her mom's retirement village. Phee is working with a former co-worker Nate at his private detective agency. Her job entails mainly bookkeeping but she seems to get pulled into investigations anyway. In this book she gets coerced into helping plan her 74 year old aunt's outlandish wedding. When murder victims start being linked to her aunt's fiance, he goes on the run. Phee must solve the mystery and save the wedding or face her eccentric aunt's drama. This is a fun series, and I adore Phee. She has endless patience for dealing with her crazy family.

Ditched 4 Murder

by J.C. Eaton

Phee (Sophie Kimball) is still acclimating to Arizona’s high temperatures: quite a change from Minnesota. She is employed as a bookkeeper at Williams Investigations, on a year’s leave of absence from the Mankato Police Department. She makes it clear that she is not a Private Investigator and has no ambitions to be one. Despite her inclinations, she gets dragged into several murder investigations because of her family ties. Her mother and her looney aunt, a soon-to-be-bride in her seventies, are already part of the aging retirement community in Sun West City, and they call on her frequently for support and particularly in tough times. Phee is in her forties and is quite likable and intelligent. Although she is single, there is no potential love interest in this book.

Ditched 4 Murder is a cozy mystery by J.C. Eaton. I enjoyed the Arizona setting, the characters, many of whom are in the catering business, and the plot with multiple threads and many complications. Especially appealing is the author’s sense of humor, a delight throughout.

I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Kensington Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 5/5

Category: Mystery

Notes: #2 in the Sophie Kimball Mystery Series, but works well as a standalone

Publication: November 28, 2017—Kensington Books

Memorable Lines:

“Quaint! Don’t you know what that means? It means no air-conditioning, no cable TV, forget about a mini-fridge and a microwave, and we’ll be lucky if they stick a fan in the room. There’s only one thing worse than quaint, and that’s rustic. Thank God she did’t pick rustic. That means no electricity and an outhouse!”

…honey, we spend the first fifty years of our lives collecting things and the next fifty giving them away.

“You ever think about doing that detective stuff, Phee?” I walked to the outside office. “Sure, I think about it. It’s right up there with trekking the Andes and riding an Icelandic horse across glacial rivers.”

I enjoyed book one in this series and I enjoyed book two even more. We pick up with Sophie as she relocates to Arizona. She is trying to balance work, dealing with her mother and company, and now being cajoled into helping with her aunts wedding. When a body turns up feet away from her mother's doorstep, Sophie finds herself on the case.
These characters have me laughing right from the start. This author paints a brilliant mystery with everything fun about a cozy series. I love the dynamic and relationships between all the characters. The mystery keeps you on the edge of your seat until the author decides it times to reveal. I enjoyed every moment of this book and cannot wait to read the next in the series.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Oh my, Sophie “Phee” Kimball has the patience of a saint. In the first book of this series, Booked 4 Murder, Phee had to deal with her mother’s daily and sometimes hourly demands and in this book, her mom Harriet is joined by Aunt Ina. Aunt Ina is planning a wedding and called Phee for “a favor”, well that favor turned into several and when her groom disappeared she expected Phee to find him too. While Phee does work for a private investigator it is in the capacity of a bookkeeper, not as a sleuth. Yes, she did help solve the last mystery but for this one, she is going to need professional help, that is if her boss, Nate, can fit this “case” into his already very busy schedule. I am seriously surprised the woman doesn’t pack up and move back to Minnesota, even with the cold winters.

I do love these characters as long as they stay in the book and aren’t my relatives 🙂 I would never be able to deal with them the way Phee does. Both her aunt and her mother want her to start dating again, but I don’t know how she would ever find the time. She does have some good friends as a support system though.

The mystery is more than just a missing man, another man was found dead at the golf course and a chef’s body was found in the state park where Aunt Ida’s nuptials are set to take place. Phee just needs to figure out if and how these three men are connected. The author throws us readers several red herrings and twists things up nicely. The pages were practically flying as we got closer to Ina’s big day and the killer/s had yet to be caught. I was right there with Phee as everything fell into place.

This story tickled my funny bone too with all these ladies and their antics. When the book club ladies joined in and were even questioned by the police, I found myself actually giggling. I also found myself laughing when an unexpected guest flew into the wedding. Again, I was fine with it in the book, up close and personal, I would definitely not be laughing.

The state park where Ina’s wedding takes place sounds like a beautiful place, sans the rattlesnakes and scorpions. The authors brought it to life nicely. I was also captivated by the description of the dessert at the reception instead of the traditional cake. It is something I would love to see and taste myself.

A couple characters drove me a little nutty, but I absolutely loved this story. I am excited about the next book in the series, especially from the little teasers at the end of this one.

Crazy characters and a fun mystery. I loved it!

Eaton's mysteries combine sleuthing with a bit of madcap comedy, as Phee Kimball is juggling her career working for a private detective with helping plan her aunt's elaborate wedding. But when the two combine in a series of murders, there will be plenty of suspense and laughter. This is a fun cozy mystery series that is sure to delight.

Ditched 4 Murder is a great mystery. This book has a great plot with quirky and believable characters and a touch of humor. I enjoyed this author's writing and definitely will be reading more of her work in the future.

This is a great book with a wonderful story and well developed characters. The story flowed very well and was very enjoyable. This book will keep you reading long into the night and you will not want to put this book down until you finish. This was such a great read and full of surprises. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader’s copy of this book. The free book held no determination on my personal review.

This was a nice escape. I did become a bit frustrated with Phee, the main character. She was always complaining about how overly-dramatic her Mom and Aunt Ina were. However, the apple didn't fall far from the tree. Phee is just as much a drama-queen as the other two. The mystery was enjoyable but there seemed to be a lot of distractions in the plot. Her Aunt having a meltdown over something or her boss running off to investigate. Would I read another by this author? Probably. This is only the second in the series and so she has more time to flesh out the characters.

This is shaping up to be a pretty fantastic cozy mystery series. To start with I love Phee. She's smart and a good investigator though sometimes she doesn't give herself enough credit. Her family drives her crazy at least half the time but still she can't tell them no. Plus, her dealing with Arizona heat after years of living in Minnesota was pretty funny. I really enjoyed seeing Phee and Nate starting their new PI business and just really enjoyed their interactions. Their friendship was something I really enjoyed in the previous book and it hasn't changed.

The mystery was equally enjoyable. It made me very glad that I am not planning a wedding as I could feel Phee's stress levels as she tries to keep everyone happy, help her aunt out, AND do her job. However, it never feels convoluted or busy. Little by little more and more is discovered about the victims and just what happened to them. While I had some suspicions as to what was going on I never felt like I had guessed what was happening and the reveal ended up being a surprise!

This is a fun fast paced cozy mystery that never drifts into cutesy though there's a big scoop of noisy neighbors and meddling relatives. The main character is likable and easy to relate to and the mystery is well constructed. All in all a fun read and a series I'm looking forward to continuing!

Sophie "Phee" Kimball is starting to wish she hadn't relocated to Arizona to be closer to her mother. Her job as an accountant for a detective agency is great....but her mom and her friends sometimes drive Phee a bit crazy. Things are definitely heating up for the little group of older ladies, and Phee is stuck right in the thick of things.....again. Her eccentric Aunt Ina is getting married. First Ina sends out strange, cryptic invitations announcing their wedding at dawn amidst ruins in the nearby state park. The 74-year old aging hippie has the whole affair planned from the bed and breakfast where they will all stay to the catering by a local French restaurant. In fact, the groom has rented out the entire section of the state park surrounding the ruins for the ceremony and reception. Phee soon realizes what a nightmare the event is going to be....bird shaped pastries, wedding tents, floral arrangements.....it's already becoming a total angst-fest. Ina begins asking Phee, Harriet and all the ladies in Harriet's bookclub, Booked 4 Murder, to handle final decisions for her wedding. Tasting the bearnaise sauce at the caterers. Picking the tent material. Making decisions about the pastries. Harriet, Phee's mother, is becoming stressed....calling constantly to complain about her sister's crazy schemes and horrible planning skills. Then, an elderly businessman is killed on the golf course near Harriet's home. And that's just the first dead body that pops up. Phee is definitely caught in the middle between murder investigations at work, and the drama over Ina's wedding at home.

I love the mix of humor and mystery in this series. I laughed just as much while reading this second book as I did when I read the first. The characters are charming. Phee's relationship with her mother is sweet...and hilarious at the same time. Drama and strange events seem to follow after the Booked 4 Murder ladies no matter what they do! :)

Ditched 4 Murder is an enjoyable cozy romp. The mystery moves along at a good speed and there is plenty of action to keep things moving. Between Aunt Ina's wedding drama and dead bodies popping up, there is never a dull moment. The wedding is.....interesting. ha ha. And, there is some nice character development leading into the next book.

The next Sophie Kimball Mystery, Staged 4 Murder, is coming out in July 2018. I can't wait! What trouble will the old gals be in this time??

Another book by J.C. Eaton, A Riesling to Die, will be published in March 2018. It's the first book in the Wine Trail Mystery series.

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Kensington via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

Ditched 4 Murder is the second book in the A Sophie Kimball Mystery series.

This is a fun and exciting follow-up to Booked 4 Murder.

Sophie(Phee) Kimball has taken a year leave of absence from the Mankato(MN) Police Department to handle the bookkeeping for her friend Nate Williams, who had recently retired from the Mankato Police Department. On the downside, she is just minutes from her mother, not just a phone call away.

Business is thriving at the office and Phee is quite busy setting up the books at Williams’ PI office and the last thing she needs is a phone call from her mother, but that is what she gets. Her mother wants to share that her 70 something sister is getting married in a couple weeks to Louis Melinsky, who is supposed to somewhat wealthy. Then she gets a call from her Aunt Ina asking for a teeny-tiny favor. Ina wants Phee to check in at La Petite Patisserie to taste the various desserts they will be serving. Before long Phee feels like a professional wedding planner, with all the little favors Ina asks her to take care of. She soon learns there is bad blood between the tent rental company, the fancy restaurant catering the dinner La Petite. Then when the body of Julien Rossier, the head of La Petite, is found just yards away from where the wedding will take place, dead from a rattlesnake bite, Phee begins to wonder if there will be a wedding at all

At the same time, Phee has her hands full at the office handling all the new inquiries that are coming in and with Nate handling a new case involving a man, Theodore Sizeman, who was found near his overturned golf cart along a local golf course. Then when the groom goes missing as evidence starts to point to him to be involved in one or both of the deaths, and with Nate being tied up on a couple of cases, Phee needs to use her limited investigative skills to learn who was responsible for the murders and hopefully save the wedding, if there is still a wedding to be performed.

Anxiously awaiting the next book in the series, Staged 4 Murder coming in July 2018.

Ditched 4 Murder by J. C. Eaton is the 2nd book in the Sophie Kimball Mystery series, and it is as good, if not better than the first book. This book made me laugh out loud, it was so funny. Once I started this book, I could not stop reading it until I was done. Not only is this book an exciting mystery but also very refreshing and a quick read. If you love funny cozy mysteries, which are my favorite, I strongly recommend this book.

I received this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Sophie Kimball is Arizona's equivalent of New Jersey's Stephanie Plum. She may not have the hunky men or unlimited supply of cars, but she has even more wacky relatives and their friends. The author kept me chuckling throughout with the tales of bridezilla (her aunt) and the unusual wedding plans. Yes, this is a murder mystery, so there is that to solve as well. This bookkeeper goes above and beyond in fulfilling her aunt's unreasonable demands and is able to stay sane while finding clues to the murder(s). I look forward to reading the next one in this delightful series.