*4 5
i loved this! it had great, interesting characters, an intriguing mystery with a satisfying solution and just the right amount of surprise, and the narrator of the audiobook was devine. it feels a lot like a miss marple story in some ways, but much more optimistic and very much present day. i did appreciate that one of the three leads wasn't middle class, because i think cozy mysteries sometimes have a way of being very snobbish. however, in my mind at least, the three of them were white, and even if the author didn't intend it that way, that would be a very much colour blind approach as there is nothing to indicate different cultural backgrounds, a struggle with micro aggressions...
nevertheless, this was great and i am absolutely going to listen to the other books in this series.