Cold and Snowy Cozy Mystery
What can be more fun in the heat of summer than reading a cozy mystery that is packed in snow? This is a really good mystery. This book is sixth in a series, but the first that I have read. The book definitely stands alone just fine. The story takes place in February near the Lake Tahoe ski areas. They are having blizzards with 12 feet of snow expected. WOW. I love reading cold and snowy stories when it is so hot outside. This a very good story. I'm sure that I would like it just as well in December. I have read lots of this author's work and you can count on a high-quality story from her. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

As Maggie, and her best friend Tess, head up to Tess’s Lake Tahoe cabin, they weren’t planning on driving in white-out conditions. As a Professional Organizer, Maggie offered to help Tess de-clutter the cabin after the death of her husband. Arriving at the cabin, it was slow going up the ice-covered driveway. Thinking the worst is past, they got out to grab what they needed for the night in the cabin. With the temperatures plummeting, they quickly go to the back of the SUV and make a chilling discovery. With feet sticking out of the snowbank, the police determined the body was a neighbor, one who went missing a couple months ago. With the decluttering project on hold as more back-to-back winter storms hitting the area and knocking out power and heat, Maggie and Tess go into sleuthing mode to find a killer.

This may be the sixth book in the series, yet I found it exciting as the others. I love Maggie and all her organizing tips! I felt like Maggie showed us a little of her vulnerability and stamina during blizzard conditions. Using her organizational skills, her many lists, Maggie keeps track of the various suspects while using her instinct to help find the killer. I appreciate the way Ms. Feliz subtlety brings to mind many of today’s concerns, making us aware of those specific to the area. As a fan, this author is one I automatically pre-order. The twists and turns throughout and the many suspects kept me guessing. There were many times I thought I figured it out, only to be surprised once again. The main characters are ones I enjoy, and meeting those involved in the murder investigation, I found loyal and attentive to the needs of the others in the cul-de-sac. This was a fast-paced cozy mystery, one that I would recommend without hesitation. I received an advanced reader copy from the publisher through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Snowed Under by Mary Feliz is the 6th book in the Maggie McDonald mystery series. Maggie McDonald, her husband, Max, and their two sons, David and Brian, and live in Orchard View, California where Max is a college professor and Maggie is a professional organizer. Maggie and her best friend Tess have gone to Tell's late husbands family cabin to clear it out so they can sell it. They arrive during a terrible snow storm, and the next day they find a body in a snowdrift right by Maggie's car. I really enjoyed this book, and felt like I was right there in the snow storm with them, as they try a figure out who it is and what happened. This book has more twists and turns, that kept me reading page after page. I found this book to be a quick read, with a well developed plot and characters. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. If you love cozy mysteries, I strongly recommend this book and series.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

While accidently slipping down an ice-covered side street in Lake Tahoe in February, Maggie discovers a dead body literally Snowed Under the recent blizzard’s wrath. It’s the neighbor’s long-missing husband. With her best friend’s help, Maggie investigates all the neighbors for means, motive, and opportunity in a snowy cocoon of suspects.

Maggie is a professional organizer who is helping her best friend Tess declutter her family’s vacation home. With Tess’ husband deceased, Tess is thinking of selling the second home for funds to make a career change for herself and pay for college for her son, Teddy. But when a neighbor’s corpse is found in their snowy cul-de-sac, the clean-up must take a backseat to a murder investigation.

The snowy and remote setting reminds me of the best golden-age mysteries where a group of people are stranded in one place and one of them is a murderer, gwah ha ha ha! You can almost feel the cold winds coming through your kindle. At the same time I am enjoying the fictional cold weather, I am also patting myself on the back for living in an area where real snow is rarely present.

I enjoyed meeting the main characters, Maggie and Tess, but especially their dogs, Belle and Mozart. They felt very genuine with realistic motives for their actions.

The mystery was a challenge to unravel. After living within a housing association tract, I was so hoping that Tess’ association president, Elisabeth, was the murderer. But there are a lot of suspects with even better motivations for murder than Elisabeth.

Overall, Snowed Under is a perfect book to cool you down on a hot summer’s day. 4 stars!

Thanks to Lyrical Press, Kensington Books, Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours, and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Here we are with the 6th book in this wonderful mystery series. Poor Maggie - if she had any idea of what was in store for her she might have stayed in bed, as they say. First she and her friend Tess believed the weather gurus and thought they would have a pretty easy drive to Tess's house near Lake Tahoe. Tess is a recent widow and she wants to clear the house of clutter so she can sell the house and move on to the next chapter of her life. Sounds like a plan until the weather turns to an almost white out blizzard and they barely make it safely to their destination. Taking only what they can easily carry in one slippery trip from car to house, they wait to make another trip to the car so they can move it per neighborhood rules. One slip and slide later, Maggie comes face to foot with a body hidden in the snow bank. As it becomes clear she didn't hit him with the car when she moved it, the question becomes was it some other type of accident or was he put there. He has been missing from his neighboring home and now all of the locals are on the suspect list. It's a very interesting list, to be sure.
Maggie starts to sort out both the house and the clues to track the killer and works with police chief Quinn Petit who also happens to be one of the neighbors. Maggie brings a fresh point of view to the neighborhood and her organized mind help sort out the clues. It's always a pleasure to watch her investigate. The mystery was solid, the clues misdirected me more than once. I always enjoy my 'visits' with Maggie and her family and friends, not to mention the dogs, Mozart and Belle. I'm looking forward to Maggie's next investigation.

My first experience with the author and the series. This entry has protagonist Maggie making a trip to Tahoe with her good friend Tess Olmos in February as Maggie will take on years of accumulation in Tess's family cabin in preparation of a future sale. Maggie is a professional organizer and this will be a getaway trip for her with her family following later for a ski vacation. They barely make the cabin in an unexpected blizzard.

Trekking back to the car in the morning has Maggie discovering a dead body. Unfortunately, it is apparently the missing husband of one of Tess's neighbors. Between the weather and the unnerving discovery, organizing, cleaning, and clearing get put on the back burner.

Maggie begins to meet the neighbors from the cul-de-sac snoop to the family of the deceased. The conditions are extreme, between the loss of power and heat, high winds, and plummeting temperatures. Descriptions of the mountains and hillside homes create an appropriate frigid scene with Maggie's dog, Belle, and Tess's dog, Mozart, adding dimension to the cozy, if not freezing atmosphere.

Perhaps this is one of those series in which you should probably start with Book 1. I found myself lost, especially in the first third of the book. There seemed contradictions in description, awkward scenes, and dialogue. Maggie begins her surreptitious interviews of the neighbors and discovers there may have been more than one possible suspect. Chief Quinn Petit seems to welcome the help even as the plot takes some twists which will have you suspending disbelief. Visit from friends back home (under extreme weather conditions?) and a sudden introduction to the perp in the conclusion was rather contrived and somewhat a disappointment for me.

I received this digital download from the publisher and NetGalley and appreciated the opportunity to read for a review. If you've followed the series, you may very well appreciate this entry, enjoy the cozy mystery. 3.5/5

Maggie didn’t get as much cleaning and organizing done as she has in some books, but we do get the words of wisdom at the beginning of each chapter. She and Tess are ready to take on the challenge of getting the mountain cabin ready to sell. You know what they say about best laid plans. Loved the story line and the characters. I loved the mountain setting, but don’t know that I could handle all that snow. I do love the way neighbors look out for each other, whether you are a full time or a part time resident. Can’t wait to see what they get into next time. I received the book from NetGalley, but my opinion is my own.

Synopsis:

When professional organizer Maggie McDonald finds a body in a snowdrift outside her friend's ski cabin, she must plow through the clues to find a cold-blooded killer . . .

Lake Tahoe in February is beautiful, but Maggie can't see a thing as she drives through a blinding blizzard with her friend Tess Olmos and their dogs, golden retriever Belle and German shepherd Mozart.Maggie has offered her professional decluttering skills to help Tess tidy up her late husband's cabin in preparation to sell. She also plans to get in some skiing when her husband Max and their boys join them later in the week.

What she doesn't plan on is finding a boot in a snowdrift attached to a corpse. The frozen stiff turns out to be Tess's neighbor, Dev Bailey, who disappeared two months ago. His widow Leslie expresses grief, but Maggie can't help but wonder if it's a snow job. As more suspects start to pile up, things go downhill fast, and Maggie must keep her cool to solve the murder before the killer takes a powder . . .

“A skillful amateur detective with an impressive to-do list.”
—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW, Address to Die For (Goodreads)

Review:

The characters are well rounded and well developed. Maggie and Tess are good friends and Maggie has offered her services to get Tess’s cabin cleaned out to sell. But they do not get very far with that, because there is a blizzard pounding the area and Maggie uncovers a dead body buried in a snow drift. She will have to use her sleuthing skills to figure out who the murderer is.

The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and I felt like I was right there, watching the blizzard hit and feel the cold. The writing style flows smoothly and defines the characters very clearly through their actions and words. I enjoyed getting to know Tess a little better, seeing her with her other friends. The mystery was well plotted and not easily solved.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery. I am looking forward to seeing what new adventure awaits Maggie and Tess.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher, Kensington Books, and NetGalley, which I greatly appreciate.

Snowed Under is another enjoyable outing for Mary Feliz's Maggie McDonald-- even though Maggie never seems to get much organizing done. Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, so I loved the setting-- and I loved that I wasn't actually there because snow and I do not get along. (It's much better to read about it than live in it.)

If you like reading cozy mysteries in which the main character as well as her family and friends are good people who use their common sense and intelligence, then this entire series is the one for you. It is so refreshing to read about people who don't go haring off on wild goose chases regardless of the danger, and-- speaking of refreshing-- it's great to have police who are willing to listen and work with ordinary citizens in the areas they protect. So... that explodes two tenents of so many cozy mystery series: the heroes thoughtlessly putting themselves in danger, and stupid, obstructive policemen. Mary Feliz proves that it can be done and done well.

If you think that this sounds like the makings of a boring mystery, think again. In Snowed Under, I didn't have a clue what was going on until one of the characters began to open up a little. An added bonus was watching everyone in the neighborhood work together to make sure they were all safe as one blizzard after another hit the area.

I don't know about you, but I certainly was in the mood for an intriguing mystery that involved good people doing the right thing. If you're not already a fan, you've got an entire feel-good series to savor. Me? Now I have to wait for the next one.

Loved reading about all the snow at this time of year. Not a fan of the cold, ice and snow, but when it is nearly 100 degrees outside, it sounds pretty good. Oh yes, there is a murder mystery. Different location, but many of the usual characters, plus those in the neighborhood. Kept me guessing. Nice relationships among the individuals.

Snowed Under is the sixth book in the Maggie McDonald cozy mystery series written by Mary Feliz.
Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley . My review opinion is my own.

Tess is helping her friend clean out her second home in Lake Tahoe . Among the organizing and cleaning they find a body and Tess wants to investigate . The main charcter in this next in series is the weather during snow season which figure in largely to the book. A lot of the book was describing snow and snow storms. I have read some of the previous in series . This one did not resonate with me and I found the sleuth very predictable and quickly figured it out. Less weather and more plot would have made this more interesting. I would recommend it for fans of the series .

It's always fun spending time with Maggie McDonald, her family and friends. This is the 6th book in the series and it does not disappoint.

Maggie and her friend Tess travel to Lake Tahoe to clean out Tess's family's cabin. In the aftermath of an unexpected snowstorm, Maggie finds the body of one of Tess's neighbors that had been missing for two months buried in the snow. Plans to organize and clean out the cabin quickly take a back seat to Maggie and Tess trying to figure out who commited the murder. The story is fast-paced with numerous snowstorms hampering the activity, and all of Tess's neighbors pitch in to help each other navigate the difficulties caused by the frequent snowstorms. In addition to Tess's Tahoe neighbors and law enforcement, Maggie's friends (and dogs) from Orchard View help solve the crime.

There were plenty of things to like about Snowed Under. It’s chock full of good tidbits about dealing with winter in snow country. There’s plenty of action to offset the feeling that this is, in a sense, a type of locked room mystery.

Unfortunately, something about the story didn’t quite mesh for me. I didn’t connecte with Maggie. She’s a likable character, and I felt like I knew what was in her head, but never what was in her heart.

As for why the police would accept an amateur sleuth into a police investigation—well, that’s just part of the territory for cozy mysteries. And, true admissions time, the story held my interest until the killer was exposed. Partially because I never figured out who the killer was until Maggie put the pieces together.

Snowed Under is the sixth book in the Maggie McDonald cozy mystery series written by Mary Feliz. I've previously read the earlier books in this series, and when the latest one became available, I quickly grabbed a copy. It was the best one in the collection thus far, and I'm excited to share more about it.

Maggie takes a trip with her good friend Tess to Lake Tahoe to prepare her second home for an upcoming sale. Tess needs money for her son's college education, and the house brings up memories of her recently deceased husband. Since Maggie's a professional organizer, it's a perfect getaway trip. Unfortunately, a major storm descends upon them shortly before they arrive, and when they finally dig themselves out of a car issue, they find the body of a neighbor who'd gone missing months ago. Did Maggie hit him with her car? Was he buried under the snow for months? What's going on in this tourist town?

Maggie's keen to help Tess focus on clearing out the house, but everything stops them. I love when forces collide to stop our main character from achieving her goals... helps create tension and a true need to solve the crime as a priority. Not only is the death of a neighbor a major reminder to Tess that she just lost her own husband 18 months ago, but it creates some interesting dynamics with the remaining neighbors, as few people are around these days, which means one of them most likely had something to do with the guy's death (neighbor, not husband).

Feliz brings all the characters to life in this book. Some of the neighbors were kind, others were strange. Maggie was focused, and Tess kept things on track for both solving the murder and figuring out what to do with everything in her house. The book was very easy to read, and I felt connected to all the side plots and new characters. When the mystery begins to unravel, there were quite a few culprits who could've had something to do with the murder. At first, I thought the guilty party was brilliant... but as things unfolded, we learned there were missing facts, and the actual villain was a slight letdown; it was a surprise yet also not as dramatic.

That said, it was a very strong book, and I enjoy the setting, characters and tone. It felt very much like Hudson Valley, when I visit friends for a long weekend... all the neighbors who come and go, yet seem to have something to hide... I could see something like this happening in real life, and that's the great sign of a solid cozy mystery. Loved the quotes at the beginning of each chapter, a welcome change from the normal organizational tips in past books. Great edition in the series. 4.5 stars.

Maggie and Tess bring their dogs but leave their families behind when they head off to Tahoe to clean out a cabin owned by Tess' late husband. There's a terrible storm- the drive is harrowing- so both are relieved to get there in one piece. Not so simple though because Maggie almost immediately stumbles over the body of Dev, a neighbor who disappeared two months earlier. Geez. Of course these two will investigate to find the murderer (is it his wife Leslie?) but they also have to deal with snow, lots and lots of snow. I like this series (and don't worry if you haven't read the earlier ones - this will be fine as a standalone) for the characters more than the mysteries (they are cozy after all). This installment adds in the challenge of living- and sleuthing- in a small tourist town in winter. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read!

Description
When professional organizer Maggie McDonald finds a body in a snowdrift outside her friend's ski cabin, she must plow through the clues to find a cold-blooded killer . . .

Lake Tahoe in February is beautiful, but Maggie can't see a thing as she drives through a blinding blizzard with her friend Tess Olmos and their dogs, golden retriever Belle and German shepherd Mozart.Maggie has offered her professional decluttering skills to help Tess tidy up her late husband's cabin in preparation to sell. She also plans to get in some skiing when her husband Max and their boys join them later in the week.

What she doesn't plan on is finding a boot in a snowdrift attached to a corpse. The frozen stiff turns out to be Tess's neighbor, Dev Bailey, who disappeared two months ago. His widow Leslie expresses grief, but Maggie can't help but wonder if it's a snow job. As more suspects start to pile up, things go downhill fast, and Maggie must keep her cool to solve the murder before the killer takes a powder . . .

My Review:
Snowed Up by Mary Feliz is a great cozy mystery. She does not disappoint.

In this story Maggie travels to help her friend in Lake Tahoe get her vacation lodge ready for sale. Of course, things do not go as planned when a body is discovered in the snow. I enjoyed the fact that there are familiar characters, as well as, new characters in this novel.

This is a great whodunit and one you should not miss.

I was provided this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. I give this a 5 Star!

Maggie is back and this time she is helping her friend Tess clean out and organize the family ski cabin to prepare it for sale. What could be better than a working vacation to the beautiful mountains in Tahoe to a sleepy resort town, but all is not as it seems as there is something very sinister bubbling beneath the surface especially after Maggie literally falls on a dead body! I absolutely love the characters in this series! Not only is the main character a likeable woman, but a competent and intelligent one that is not just dismissed as a crazy female. The assortment of supporting cast is also well developed and fleshed out to make for a group of very likable people that you would most likely be friends with if they were real. I always enjoy my visit with Maggie and hope that some of her organizational skills would rub off on my own home! I'm really looking forward to seeing what the next book in the series brings for the characters, if they all survive this book...you'll have to read it and see!

3.75 Stars

There's a lot going on in this cozy, quick mystery. Maggie agrees to help her friend clean up and prepare her vacation area home before putting it up for sale. But when Mggie finds a dead body in the snow outside the cleaning takes a back seat to amateur detective sleuthing.

While a good story I found the local police to be entirely too willing to accept of Mggie's helping. It made everything feel too unrealistic. Plus there's so many different things happening -- you never get bored. I just wish the author had taken a bit more time with ending. . .it felt quite hurried.

All in all Snowed Under is a good read and a nice addition to the series. I definitely suggest reading the books in order from the beginning.

I enjoyed this book. The characters and scenario of winter and neighbors taking care of each other are great. This really is a people story. The reveal of the bad guy was interesting, especially since Noah hadn't been on anyone's radar for being the bad guy. #SnowedUnder #NetGalley

I've really come to love this series. Even with visiting with a friend in Lake Tahoe, she still finds a body of a guy that went missing a couple of months before. Maggie and Tess help on finding the murderer even while Lake Tahoe is having some severe storms.

I enjoyed the mystery as well as the writing style. Maggie has begun to feel like an old friend that I would like to visit or come to my house and help me organize.