I do like when cozy mysteries involve cold cases, or historical cases. There is something tangible, connecting the past with the present. I also love Victorian houses and thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

I felt nothing but sadness for the poor headmaster and immediately knew that there was more to the story. I pretty much knew who the killer was, but I went a different route for why until about two-thirds of the way through. However, that didn’t take anything away as I still needed to know the motivation as well as what would happen to the house.

Overall, I rate this novel 5 out of 5 stars.

A fun addition to this wonderful cozy mystery series. This is the 7th in series. I have enjoyed the entire series. Thank you to the publishers and Net Galley.

In this next in series our courageous carpenter protagonist and her partner are taking on a run down Victorian with a suspicious past. Murder occured here that was never solved. A sleuth Whitney cannot overlook as she jumps in to solve the mystery.
The characters are delightful especially Sawdust the cat. The supporting characters all add to the fun. I enjoyed the red herrings and the conclusion. I highly recommend this next in series.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters are interesting & you really feel like you know them. I did figure out who the killer was about half way through but the story is so interesting I didn’t get bored waiting for them to figure it out. #DeadPostSociety #NetGalley

I have loved the books in the House-Flipper series by Diane Kelly. I actually read the 5th and 6th books before going back and reading the first three. So when I suddenly read this 7th in the series, I had forgotten that Whitney and Collin have gotten married. So it took me a moment to catch up. But then I was ready to get lost in the pages! I love the characters … from Whitney to her cousin, Buck, to her best friend and Buck’s wife, Courtney, to her husband, Collin, to her cat, Sawdust. The mystery is so well developed and I loved that Whitney was trying to help bring closure on an unsolved crime. I love the setting of Nashville, TN and the small town feel that it has. There are a lot of characters introduced as part of the murder investigation, but you are able to keep track of them and they are each unique enough that you will remember them easily. This is another great addition to the series and I can’t wait to see what house-flipping escapade Whitney and Buck find themselves in as we get together in the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

Cozy Mystery
Fiction
Mystery

Dead Post Society by Diane Kelly is a well-written mystery.

Will Whitney figure out what happened to the Finsters?

Whitney Whitaker Flynn
Our sleuth is Whitney, a carpenter and house flipper by trade. However, she is also an amateur investigator when the case finds her. In this installment, Whitney's family is helping to remodel an old boarding school that closed after the headmaster and his wife were killed. There is even speculation that the headmaster killed his wife and then himself. However, Whitney doesn't honestly believe that version.

Collin and Whitney are enjoying their first year of marriage. Things truly seem to be going along well for them. I love how patient and encouraging Collin is when it comes to Whitney's side passion. The two of them are fantastic together.

Whitaker Woodworking is going strong. Renovating the old school into a retirement home is an excellent idea. The entire process and timeframe are fantastic. Watching Whitney and her family being part of this is terrific. Then, with her and Buck's renovation of the headmaster's Victorian house into a boutique hotel, it is such a smart idea.

Sawdust
Whitney has a cat aptly named Sawdust, like his coloring. We even get a few chapters from Sawdust's point of view. These are some of my favorite chapters. It's always fun getting inside the head of a feline.

Five Stars
My rating for Dead Post Society by Diane Kelly is five stars. I love the whole house flipping, mystery-solving, carpenter aspect of the book. Don't let that fool you, as Whitney is intelligent and courageous. I highly recommend this book to all fans of cozy mysteries.

There is also a recipe for Lemon Pistachio Orzo Salad included at the end of the book.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Dead Post Society by Diane Kelly.

Until the next time,
~Jen

If you would like to see other reviews like this one, check out Baroness Book Trove.

I have to say I think this one was my favorite of the House Flipper mysteries. Though it seems like Sawdust likes his cat brothers very much or at the very least doesn’t know how to take them.

I have been reading and enjoying this series for a long time. I love Sawdust the kitty and I am fond of the human characters and always find the renovations they do quite fascinating. This time Whitney and her cousin, and partner, Buck, decide to take on an old Victorian that has been allowed to deteriorate almost to the point of no return. It sits on the property owned by the former prep school that her uncle’s company is turning into a community centre for a retirement community. The house has a tragic history of suicide and murder but as Whitney starts to look around, there is reason to think the unclosed crime was a double homicide.

There are a couple of really obvious suspects one of which Whitney confronts in a way that almost got her a nomination for the Darwin Award. She did realize a little too late how foolish it was but then doubled down by doing something almost as foolish. This one, however, paid off so she got some “brownie points” back. I do like suspense and excitement in my stories but bridle when the heroine doesn’t use her brain. Even with it all, I twigged early to the killer. That never spoils the fun as I cannot wait to see if I am right or wrong. I suspect there are lots of other fans who do the same.

The personal stories that go on behind the murders are always enjoyable because the characters are people with whom you like to spend time. Four purrs and one paw up.

While her cousin and business partner Buck takes a break after the birth of his first child, house-flipper Whitney Whitaker Flynn helps her uncle with his latest construction project. Whitaker Woodworking has been hired to completely renovate Tennessee’s old Ridgetop Preparatory Academy, which closed in the 80s and has been empty ever since. Whitney finds herself intrigued by a Victorian home on the property, so much so that she gets Buck to have them save it from demolition and purchase it for their next house-flipping project. She learns that it has been empty for a reason, as it was the site of the murder-suicide of the school’s last headmaster and his wife. When Whitney finds a bullet embedded in a porch post she takes it to the police, believing that this could have been evidence that they missed and possibly critical to their previously closed investigation.

Dr. Irving Finster was a bestselling author whose book sales were declining, was faced by budgetary and faculty issues, and according to rumors had a straying wife. After seeing accusatory graffiti Whitney is unable to resist looking into the beleaguered headmaster’s life, especially when she learns about a possibly sociopathic former student who had invaded the Fensters’ home. In order to placate her curiosity Whitney tracks down the former faculty, questions a groundskeeper, and even sacrifices her hair to a possibly murderous hairstylist. While her cat Sawdust narrates a few chapters expressing her frustration with her absent human, Whitney finds herself working with the police to solve an injustice decades old.

This 7th in the series has Whitney setting aside most of her contracting duties to focus instead on the intriguing murder investigation. This is a boon for mystery readers, as it ventures in the academic mystery genre by exploring the many factions and political battles within upper education. Whitney is still adjusting to being the new wife of Metro Nashville homicide Detective husband Collin Flynn, who by this time has become accustomed to her nosy tendencies. Sawdust is a bit less complacent with Whitney’s adventures, although the feline plays a critical role in the dramatic conclusion. As Whitney sees her cousin and best friend settle into the new phase of their lives, she reconsiders her own now that he has found happiness in her marriage and successful renovation business. The humor and dialogue is as lively as ever, and the introduction of academic politics is a new addition that energizes the plot and keeps the series as innovative and compelling as ever. Poems by Rudyard Kipling, William Shakespeare, and Walt Whitman introducing each chapter establish its academic credits while hinting at the intrigue to follow. This is another winning mystery led by a clever amateur detective and her house-flipping team.

Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Jeanie

I always look forward to a new mystery in this series, and Dead Post Society exceeded my hopes. I was happily engaged from the first page, where Whitney’s family awaits the birth of the first baby of her cousin, Buck, and her best friend, Colette. Whitney’s mother makes broad hints that she is looking forward to a grandchild of her own. Whitney and Collin, a police detective, have been married less than a year, so they had not yet discussed timing for their own little bundle of joy.

There is sufficient backstory on the characters to introduce them to new readers. Each is well-defined according to their roles. Whitney and her possessive sidekick kitty, Sawdust, are my favorites. I enjoy her intelligence, hard work in the career she loves, her relationship with her husband, Collin, and her close bond with Sawdust.

Whitney and Buck have not had a house-flipping project since Whitney and Collin’s wedding and Mari’s birth. They have been working for Buck’s father and Whitney’s Uncle Roger, whose carpentry company has a huge new project. Buck and Whitney went to the new site to meet with the developer of the former Ridgetop Preparatory Academy, a boarding school. Troy is converting it into a modern retirement community with extensive refurbishment and upgrades.

Fascinated by a Victorian home on the property, Whitney and Buck inspected it. The exterior required many repairs. The inside was in excellent condition, except for its 1980s décor and much dust. The appealing antique furniture was also in excellent condition.

Whitney noticed that a collapsed porch post had broken at its widest point rather than the much more fragile areas higher up. A closer look showed her the cause, the bullet lodged in it, and she removed it. Whitney, a delightfully curious young woman, would research the home a little later. She had helped police solve several murders over the past couple years, and enjoyed puzzles. They then learned the history of the home.

The private high school/ boarding school closed in 1982, after a series of events resulted in a financial crisis. In early 1982, headmaster Irving Finster and his wife, Rosie, a beloved teacher, died in what was probably a murder-suicide in the Victorian. Small clues were found that indicated a third person was in their house that terrible day but was not proven. The case was never closed. Faculty and students alike were grieved by the tragedy, especially Rosie’s murder.

After discussing the work to be done on the school, Whitney asked Troy, the developer, what he would do with the Victorian. It saddened her that he planned to tear it down. She asked if they would consider selling it with a couple acres of land, and Troy was willing to entertain an offer. By the next evening, they had a verbal deal to buy the home and its contents, and Troy would have the sale documents prepared. Whitney and Buck would convert it into a boutique hotel, certain to be popular for those visiting family in the retirement community.

Whitney found a small hole in the window frame of the room where the deaths occurred, in perfect alignment with the broken porch post. She went to the local sheriff’s office, turned it in, and discussed it with the current detective. They then proceeded with the work on the retirement community. Not one to let a mystery go, Whitney talked with former teachers and a former student, and finally found solid evidence that led the detective to re-activate the case.

Finding information on a murder more than a decade before the internet was widely available stretched even Whitney’s snooping skills! There were a couple people who appeared to be top suspects, but for one reason or another, didn’t quite fit. The real killer was not a surprise to me, due to one little clue that I had tucked aside. All was resolved admirably with the murder and their renovation projects, with a surprise that I am looking forward to reading more about next time. I highly recommend this novel and series, especially to those who appreciate well-written cozy mysteries that include construction, cats, laugh out loud humor, and cold cases!

I really enjoyed this mystery a lot. There were a lot of hidden elements to it that made it a lot of fun to solve. My husband and I like to watch and read a lot about true crime, and I enjoyed the fact that this book had an unsolved murder mystery in it. It gave it a lot of depth to the story.

This series has only gotten better. Every book, I enjoy Whitney and how she has grown in her amateur sleuthing abilities that much more. I love the fact that she is something other than a journalist or a teacher but something kind of unexpected.

I also have a love for old houses and old buildings so reading this series has really put a lot of the things that I like together and has made for some very interesting tales to read. I love reading Diane Kelly's books a lot. She really knows how to mix humor, mystery, and life together in her stories. I heartily recommend this and all of her books.

Thanks to Net Galley, the publishers, and to Diane Kelly for the ability to read and review this story. All opinions are my own and are completely honest.

Whitney Whitaker and her cousin, Buck, flip houses in the Nashville, Tennessee area. Whitney falls in love with a Victorian house that served as the headmaster’s home on the grounds of what was an exclusive boarding school. Whitney has so many ideas on how they could fix this house up, so she and Buck decide to go forward with the project even after learning that two people lost their lives in the home. Whitney begins researching the suspicious deaths, but it quickly becomes clear that someone wants old history to remain in the past. Whitney is determined to protect the reputation of the house, but will she need to fight for her own life in the process?

Dead Post Society is the seventh in the House-Flipper series. I’ve read the two books prior to this one, but not the earlier installments, and think each book works well as a standalone. Each book has a nice balance of remodeling projects, sleuthing, and family life. Readers following the series won’t want to miss a development in Whitney’s personal life that occurs in this one. There are a couple of chapters told from the point of view of Whitney’s cat, Sawdust. They are short and cute without being too corny, adding some fun to the book.

The grounds of the abandoned school make a great setting for the book. I appreciate that Whitney is investigating a cold case in this book, and I enjoyed how she combined research with questioning witnesses and suspects to uncover the truth. I didn’t like that she ignored the good advice from her husband, Collin, and put herself into dangerous situations more than once. More interactions between Whitney and Collin and Whitney and Buck would have made the book even better, but the story held my interest and kept me guessing as to the identity of the killer. Fans of the series, as well as fans of Kate Carlisle’s Fixer Upper Mysteries, will enjoy this intriguing cozy mystery.

~ Christine

Dead Post Society follows Whitney Whitaker as she begins a renovation on a boarded up headmaster's house with her cousin Buck. The mansion sites on the grounds of a boarding school that is being turned into a senior living community. Whitney wants to turn the victorian mansion into a boutique hotel that will service family of the nearby residents.
Unlike past books the mystery doesn't start with Whitney finding a body, but instead it develops as she unravels the mystery of the two people who last lived and died in the home decades earlier. The former headmaster of the school and his wife were believed to be killed in a murder suicide, but when Whitney discovers a bullet lodged into the homes exterior she begins to wonder if they both weren't murdered.
Lots of twists and red herrings. I enjoyed this installment of this series. There was some great character development outside of the mystery as well.

Whitney’s construction company takes on the job of remodeling an old boarding school into a retirement community. But the old headmaster’s house had a mysterious murder-suicide long ago that she finds impossible to ignore. And her investigations bring to light a lot of secrets that someone would prefer stay buried.

A very twisty mystery, in a way I’ve enjoyed from Kelly before. And I really liked the characters! Whitney and Collin’s relationship is well established, steady, and lovely. And I would have loved more time with her uncle and her cousin.

I also loved all of the reconstruction details. My mother works with old buildings, so I recognized a lot of the things Whitney did to take care of the old Victorian home.

But this was an incredibly slow story that suffered from overly tell instead of show & too descriptive of actions. Which resulted in me getting a bit bored. And I still don’t get the point of the cat’s POV chapters. They didn’t add enough to the story for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for this arc.

Carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck tackle a Victorian mansion with a dark past, aiming to transform it into a boutique hotel. As Whitney delves into the unsolved murders of the former headmaster and his wife, she uncovers chilling secrets that put her in danger. With engaging characters, a gripping plot, and a different settings, this cozy mystery is a delightful blend of suspense and charm. The authors writing style in Dead Post Society is engaging blending humor, suspense, and vivid descriptions. She skillfully incorporates twists to keep readers guessing, while also weaving in historical elements and poetry quotes that add depth to the story. I found the story easy to read and understand and follow along as well.

Thanks netgally and to the author for allowing me to read this novel and give my honest review.

Rating 4 🌟

Dead Post Society
A House Flipper Mystery
Diane Kelly
5 Stars

Synopsis:

The seventh in the House-Flipper mystery series set in Nashville, TN, where the real estate market is to die for.

This year's honor roll is killer...

Carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck are no strangers to murder. After all, they’ve encountered corpses on their properties before. But this is the first time they’d decided to take a chance on a property where two suspicious deaths have already occurred. Most buildings on the former boarding school property will be repurposed for an upscale retirement community, but the developer has no use for the headmaster’s house given its violent history. The headmaster and his wife were killed there decades earlier, their deaths remaining unsolved to this day.

Still, it seems a shame to see the beautiful Victorian give way to decay or the wrecking ball, even if many claim the unsettled souls of the victims still wander its halls, seeking retribution and justice. Can Whitney and Buck exorcise the structure’s demons, solve the cold case, and give the building new life? Or will ghosts from the past seek to silence them forever? (Amazon)

Review:

The characters are well rounded and well developed. Whitney and Buck have decided to renovate a Victorian. The problem is that the Victorian is the site of two unsolved murders. It is believed that it is the site of a murder/suicide but no one know for sure. Whitney is on the case and she is going to figure out what exactly happened long ago.

The author is very talented in her description and these descriptions pulled me into the story from the very beginning. The writing style flows smoothly and defines the characters very clearly by their actions and words. The mystery was well plotted and not easily solved.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery. I enjoyed this book and I think you will too.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley, which I greatly appreciate.

This is a cozy little mystery with some HGTV included. I enjoyed that this was not a typical fast paced thriller. Slow paced suspense kept me engaged. The book is full of details and interesting characters. There were a lot of people introduced in the book, but it was not hard to follow/keep track of them, which I loved because who wants to read a book where you can't even remember everyone. I enjoyed the "mystery" and who it was kept "nongraphic," which allowed me to flow through the pages and not have to stop because of too much gore. This would be a great book club read or anyone in there "cozy mystery: phase of reading. This was actually my first cozy mystery, and I must say it was a good introduction into that genre. Looking forward to more of these books from this author!

I've enjoyed each book of this series and I think this might be the best one yet! It was very fast paced and the plot moved right along. It kept me guessing right until the author wanted me to know who the killer was. This series is highly recommended for fans of the cozy genre. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a review.

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery set around flipping a property. I loved Whitney and her brother Buck. I loved all the twists and turns as Whitney tries to solve a very cold case. I enjoyed the laughs and the bits of suspense. I received a copy of the book from the publisher for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

I had a really hard time with this book. It felt so rushed and like time skipped so fast that I was reeling. While the mystery itself was interesting, and the plot of the shooting having happened years ago was intriguing, I had a really hard time connecting with anything happening in the story because it felt simultaneously summarized and rushed along and too drawn out. I wished we could've gotten to know the headmaster and his wife a bit more but it all felt surface level.

Whitney is back with another exciting mystery that has us flying through the pages. Dead Post Society is a great addition to The House Flipper Series.

Dead Post Society is a bit different house flipper story than what we are used to. Instead of flipping the house, they are doing reservations on an old Victorian does they plan to turn into a boutique hotel. The property comes with a bit of its own mystery. Two people died, but they begin to realize they may not have died the way everyone thought. And the only one that doesn’t want answers is a person who actually committed thc crime.


With a mystery that has been left cold for decades, Whitney being the inquisitive woman that she is. It also helps that she’s in a position to be able to look for clues that no one could find all these years ago. Finding things that points to the direction there was foul play. Whitney feels a very strong urge.to put together the clues of what happened all those years ago. Diane Kelly does an amazing job, giving her readers an entertaining and engaging story.