OLIVER TWISTED, An Ivy Meadows Mystery, by Cindy Brown is a delightful romp in the park. The premise is delightful and I adore this Ivy Meadows series. I think there were some lags but overall I found this to be delightful. Recommended.

I really enjoyed this book! It's been a while since I had a book grab me by the face and insist I read right through, but this one did it. It took only a few pages to get fully engaged, and I felt almost physical pain when I had to put it down 40 pages from the end and go to work. The funny thing: I can't really say just why this book got me, and not the last several I've read. The writing, the characters, and the story just seemed to work for me. I liked Ivy, who shows a good balance of solid work as both detective and actress with just enough metaphorical face-plants to keep her human (more goofs as detective than actress, which makes sense as the former is her new profession).

I also liked the mystery. It was complex, and I was unsure who was the perp until very near the end (though there were earlier moments when I fingered the right person, I was always diverted off onto another suspect). The book does a nice job of making you think about family and relationships without making itself into any kind of treatise--these things just matter to the story.

The writing is strong and well-edited, though the discussion of "duct/duck tape" is going to send me off to do some research. The Dickens references throughout (well, it *is* a Dickens cruise) add an element of fun as well as forcing me to dredge up memories of books long past. I admit to remembering the musical Oliver! quite a lot better than the book Oliver Twist. In fact, the least real thing in this book, in my opinion, was Ivy's ability to skim quickly through a Dickens novel or two. That man used a lot of words!

Although this is the 3rd book in the series, it stands alone just fine. I will be going back and reading the first two!

Recommendation:
A great summer read, not too demanding but not total fluff, either. If you are a Dickens fan you'll get some real bonuses out of it (I've read just enough Dickens to catch a lot of the references, but not all).

The Ivy Meadows Mystery series by Cindy Brown has rapidly become one of my favorite cozy mystery series. I have so much fun reading the books, that I end up laughing out loud.

In this story, actress/private detective (in training) Ivy Meadows (aka Olive Zweigwart) has a gig on a Get Lit (as in Literature, people) which involves both of her areas of expertise. She and her uncle are undercover looking for the gang that is responsible for the series of thefts that have been plaguing the cruise line. As part of the deal, Ivy has also been cast as Nancy in their adaptation of “Oliver” which is called “Oliver! At Sea!”).

Almost immediately, Ivy discovers a dead body and adds solving what may be murder to her to-do list. The ship is on its way from the mainland to Hawaii when an emergency comes up at home that tears Ivy's attention in two directions.

There is a scene that involves a bathroom that had me in tears as I was laughing so much. If you like funny mysteries, this may be just the series for you. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series and hope that there will be many more in the future.

I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.