Isabel Puddles has lived in her family's lakeside Gull Harbour house for much of her life and plans to die there. She struggles to pay for the luxuries in life, including taxes, now that her children are grown and gone, in an area of vacation houses owned mostly by rich foreigners. She sells her popular pickles and pies, works at her cousin's hardware business, and grudgingly accepts a hairdressing job at a funeral home to keep up. That's how she discovers a nail in rich farmer Earl Jonasson's head. Isabel's call to her cousin Ginny, who is engaged to sheriff Grady Pemberton, sparks an inquiry that leads to the arrest of Earl's son, whose girlfriend, Tammy Trudlow, according to Isabel, is more of a fighter than a lover. Earl Jr. isn't the brightest bulb, and his sister, Meg, is upset that anybody would believe he could murder his father—an perspective Isabel supports, but her loudmouthed bestie, Frances Spitler, expresses an other viewpoint to a reporter. Although Isabel believes Tammy had something to do with the tragedy, Grady dismisses her, forcing her to rely on her extensive network to uncover evidence that would prove her correct. Her choice to take in Earl's lonely dog, Corky, as a friend for her beloved Jackpot causes a chain reaction.

A true humor book that may either be liked or disliked!

Meet Isabel Puddles and Isabel Puddles Investigates by M.V. Byrne are the first and second book respectively of the cozy Mitten State Mystery series. As with most cozy mysteries each book of the Mitten State Mystery series does contain it’s own mystery that will be solved so they can be read as a standalone of in any order if choosing to do so. There is however character development that carries over book to book for those that follow the series from the beginning.

Isabel Puddles is a widow and the mother of two grown children living in Gull Harbor, Michigan. Isabel supports herself by doing all kinds of odd jobs and considers herself a jack of all trades. Most notably of late this avid mystery fan has taken a job in the local funeral parlor doing up the hair of the corpses. This is where Isabel finds a nail in the head of the departed, Earl Jonasson, and opens up a murder case.

Then in the second book Isabel decides that after her first dive into the deep waters of solving a murder to add to her resume once again and got herself a P.I. license. Isabel however still works her other odd jobs and as she’s helping out at her cousin’s hardware shop a new client walks in. Soon Isabel is hired by the extravagant recluse, Abigail Bachmeier, when her nephew disappeared and she tasks Isabel with finding another missing relative.

Meet Isabel Puddles and Isabel Puddles Investigates by M.V. Byrne were both cozy mysteries that fell right into the this was alright pile but not ones that really grabbed me. Both books had a slower pace to them which would be fine if full of the laughs I love but those were fewer than I’d like too. The second book even felt as if completely starting over again with the series instead of just being peppered with reminders here and there. Overall these are in the not bad but not ones I fell in love with leaving them at three stars each.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Meet Isabel Puddles was such a great cozy read!!

This is the first book in the series. Here we find Isabel Puddles a widow living on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Of course, she finds herself right in the middle of a mystery and boy is it fun to follow her as she figures out who did it. The characters are well-developed and the overall story was fun to read.

Can't wait to read more from this author.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. It is a little slow paced. The writing style of this author is good. The suspense in this cosy mystery is good. It makes you think about who did it. It is set in Michigan. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. This book is in stores for $15.95 (USD).

Isabel Puddles would like to tell you some things. She’d like to tell you about being a widow and retired and living in a small Michigan town. She’d like to tell you how she became an octogenarian who avoids cell phones and just how she makes her famous pot roast. She’d especially like to tell you about the nail she found jammed into the skull of Earl Johnson while filling in as a funeral home beautician. It’s kind of a long story.

Thankfully, even with all the murder and mayhem, it’s also an entertaining one. And really, who better to tell it than Isabel herself?

After stumbling into the mystery, she serves as both sleuth and tour guide of her tiny Gully Harbor, a seemingly otherwise idyllic town. Conveniently, Isabel seems to know both everything and everyone—and sometimes this comes off as a distraction from the main case. Author M.V. Byrne, in his cozy debut, has Isabel pop off with anything that comes to mind. However, while it might seem as though she’s off on another unrelated tangent, ranging from her thoughts on windmills to reminiscing of prom dates past, the result is an absolutely charming main character completely unlike many of her contemporaries in the genre. She’ll talk about anything, making it as though she’s a friend who’s just popped around to tell you about her weekend … which just happened to include a murder.

Of course, while Isabel might be the heart of the book, the mystery takes center stage. In terms of puzzles, Byrne expertly weaves a plausible case. While Isabel uses a mix of interrogation and general snooping, she also relies heavily on a cadre of new and old friends. Byrne has crafted a great—and often funny—secondary characters whose bantering lightens up the otherwise horrifying scenario.

Between a sleuth with a penchant for saying whatever comes to mind and solid mystery, M.V. Byrne has written a great start to a new series.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read the book.. A great start that kept me interested until the end.I can't wait to read more.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series and am anxiously awaiting the next installment. The characters were engaging and the story keeps you guessing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for kindly providing me with a digital copy of this book for review.
This is the first book in a brand new cozy mystery series and I think the author has done a good job of setting up the characters and the small town where the series is set.
I think a lot of criticism has been that there is quite a bit of back story given to the main characters, so it does take a little time for the plot to get moving. I however, quite enjoyed all the character building and I think understanding the backstory made me more connected and sympathetic to the main character.
There were a few moments where plausibility had to be questioned ( but when does it ever not in cozy mysteries), but it did not distract from a very enjoyable story xx

For an immersive experience of a cozy small-town mystery, this ticks all the boxes. This fact is both an advantage as well as a disadvantage. I will elaborate on the disadvantages first. The depth into which we are informed of all the dynamics between the townspeople and all their background information (sometimes starting from their birth) takes a lot of time and attention away from the main plot.
Although the number of pages does not amount to much, I struggled to keep reading by the time the actual plot begins. This happened even though once the story started, suspects were rounded up, arrests made, and official and unofficial investigation were carried out very briskly. I debated rating the book lower than I finally did because of the way things were moving along. Here is where the advantages of the writing helped boost its rating.
The content was not bad in any form or fashion. It may have been slow and made me impatient, but I cannot, in all honesty, say that anything was annoying in it.
Isabel and her whole history are introduced to us, as are her relationships with the various significant players in the narrative. The case unexpectedly surfaces, and theories are bandied about, arrests made. Amidst all this hullabaloo, our lead sticks to her guts and single-mindedly pursues what she sees as clues. She does this in an 'I am an old woman, what harm could I do' way. The last few chapters wildly deviate from the pace of the rest of the book. The cozy element is literally thrown out a moving car's window as chaos descended. Overall it was an entertaining read, and I was glad I stuck with it.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I LOVE Isabel and I am so happy to be starting this cozy series. The mystery was good and the supporting characters were very interesting. Kentwater County sounds like a beautiful place to visit and I look forward to accompanying Isabel on another adventure.
Many thanks to Kensington Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

A sweet story with a lovely main character. It felt a little too 'tell' and not enough 'show' for me personally. Nonetheless, this is a creative take on the familiar and much-loved cosy mystery.

This series has a lot of potential and I loved the MC.
Unfortunately the first part is really slow and there's a lot of backstory so it took quite a long time before the mystery part started.
As I loved the MC and the style of writing I look forward to reading the next instalment.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Meet Isabel Puddles by M. V. Byrne

Isabel Puddles, a widowed mother of two grown children, lives in a tiny hamlet along Lake Michigan, her hometown.. She loved reading murder mysteries, but not until she took a job at the funeral home styling hair did she get involved in one.

I didn’t care for the title. I was not going to read this book. I am so glad I did.. It was excellent.
Strong characters. Kept you on the end of your seat until the book was finished.

Thanks to Net Galley for sending me an advanced reader’s copy for my review.

Meet Isabel Puddles by M.V. Byrne is a new cozy mystery featuring widow Isabel Puddles. She is active in her community and knows everyone (along with their stories). We get detailed information on Isabel and what seems like everyone she knows. It felt like an information dump in the beginning with all the details. I did not feel we needed a life history on Isabel (not in the first book) and anyone who lived or worked nearby (it was too much). There are some interesting and quirky characters in the story. I enjoyed the humorous moments which had me laughing. The vivid depictions of the town allowed me to visualize it. It took a bit to get to the mystery (we are busy getting to know Isabel). There are multiple suspects in the whodunit. Isabel works her way through each one. I wish the whodunit had been more of a challenge. Identifying the guilty party is a piece of cake even with the number of suspects. The mystery is not at the forefront of the story. Just when I would start to get into the whodunit, Isabel would launch into one of her tales (she has so many of them). We follow Isabel and the sheriff as they investigate Carl’s death. I do like how it all comes together at the end. The author needs to find a balance between too much information and too little. I cannot imagine what else there is to learn about Isabel. It seems that we know everything about her. I thought the pacing of the story was slow and the story felt like it dragged on forever. I really struggled to finish Meet Isabel Puddles. There were some bright moments that I truly enjoyed. I hope there are more of them in future books. This is just the first book in A Mitten State Mystery series. We must wait to see how the series develops as well as the author’s writing. Meet Isabel Puddles has potential with its interesting main character, quirky residents, and charming town.

So, I was drawn to this book by the cover and had great expectations. I didn't like or dislike this book, it's extremely well written and I think Isabel could grow on me. My problem is there was so much backstory that it took to.long to get to the main story. By then, I was completely bored. I'm interested to read the next book to see if this was just a one time thing.

I wanted to read this book because the premise sounded interesting, but the book fell a little bit short for me. First off, we certainly did meet Isabel Puddles. In fact, we learned everything about her that there is to know. How many people do you meet where they tell you there life story at the first meeting? Well, this book is much like that. In fact, so much information was given that there won't be anything left to know about her in future books (if there are any planned). It's like everything was thrown at us as fast as it could come.

I felt as if it detracted from the murder, which should have taken front and center, but didn't. It took awhile to get there, because we were learning All About Isabel. Not that this is a bad thing; it just took so long to tell it all, and the book could have been sheared down at least two dozen pages less. Yes, I get that the author wanted to give us background, which is always appreciated; but there was so much of it that I began to find Isabel the most boring woman on earth. She was constantly telling us stories that were decades old and weren't needed to tell the current tale.

That being said, I had a hard time getting into the mystery itself because of this. Every time we were given a bit of it, she started telling us another story. The murderer became apparent early on, but I was waiting to see how the sheriff and Isabel put everything together. It wasn't until the end that Isabel had her 'aha' moment, which was fine with me; and the ending brought everything together nicely. I only wish we had more to learn about Isabel, but I think we've learned it all.

Meet Isabel Puddles by M.V. Byrne is the 1st in a series, A Mitten State Mystery by Kensington Books due for Nov 24, 2020 publication. It’s a mystery in the cozy style.
Isabel Puddles can give Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher a run for their money.
To help make ends meet Isabel agrees to help a friend at his funeral parlor. When his normal hair and makeup person is sick, Isabel agrees to help prepare, for visitation the next day, a local man, Earl Jonasson Sr. who died of a stroke. Or did he?
Isabel finds something during preparation of the body that others had missed and it is something that could put the cause of death in serious doubt. And when the sheriff is called in, he arrests, in Isabel’s opinion, the wrong person. But to find the real killer Isabel must figure out the real motive.
I give it 3 ½ stars. It is a good read with a well-worn plot device. But it is fun!!

This was extremely well-written, and I think I felt like Izzy was an old friend before the first couple of chapters even ended. There was a lot going on besides the mystery, and the book was lots more detailed than the cozies I'm used to, but if I thought about it, it was just like visiting Jessica in Cabot Cove and all the small town goings-on. Izzy and her friends all tended to go off on a tangent, some of which had a lot of bearing on the mystery itself, and some were just interesting back stories for the characters. But it was all worth paying attention to.

I couldn't believe how exciting it got toward the end when they knew whodunit! It was great and provided an experience Iz and her friends wouldn't soon forget. She'd ended up making friends with a high-profile lawyer in the process and helping someone change their ways. I loved that Iz was all about helping people which made people happy to do nice things for her. No matter what the person had done, she always saw the good in them.

There were so many laugh out loud moments too, and by the end of the book, I felt like I'd made a whole group of new friends that I can't wait to visit again. I loved how the epilogue reflected back, and everything that could possibly have been considered a loose thread was neatly resolved and explained. I'm really anxious now for the next book!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

This was a very good beginning to a new series. My only criticism is that it took forever to get to the main story. We got lots of background that was interesting but you felt like you were never going to get to the point. Once you do get to the point it's great! There is lots of action and plenty of red herrings. The characters are wonderful! Isabel is a treasure and all of her friends are very entertaining. Isabel makes a great sleuth and I'm looking forward to more of this series.
I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher and voluntarily chose to review it.

Meet Isabel Puddles by M. V. Byrne is the 1st book in the Mitten State Mystery series, and my first book by this author. I really enjoyed this book, and Isabel is an older protagonist. This book was easy to read and perfect for an escape from cold weather or the pandemic. I will be reading more books by this author, looking forward to book two in the series. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy sweet romances.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.