angst, closed-circle-mystery, false-conclusions, friendship, frustration, snow-season, relationship-issues, relationships, verbal-humor, m/m cozy-mystery, m/m romantic-suspense, murder, murder-investigation, invested-erotica, self-worth-issues, writers, wry-humor, editor, snarky*****

Cristopher is conned into helping with an annual winter writing retreat in Connecticut by one of his oldest friends/mentor because she believes that someone is trying to kill her. This comes at a time when he is buried in angst over the man he probably loves. So off he goes. He feels woefully inadequate to the tasks she has set for him, and then he is nearly killed (JX to the rescue!). The sleuthing becomes a reluctantly joint effort and the romance...
Excellent plot with hazardous red herrings, massive twists, fantastic characters, and a setting to die for. Loved it!
Voice actor Kevin R. Free is perfectly attuned to the main characters and makes a fun read spectacular! ( )

Kit Holmes's mentor when he first started writing was Anne Hitchcock, America's answer to Agatha Christie. Now she calls him for help, frightened somebody is trying to kill her.

Even the author seems to think that Kit's insecurity about J. X. being five years younger is ridiculous, so hopefully it will be laid to rest from now on. Apart from that a good, fun, read. ( )

Kit is once again extremely whiny in this one, and the culprit was very very obvious way too soon. In spite of that, it was enjoyable. Like the first one, I felt like there was a tribute/gentle mockery of some older mysteries, that sense of the author having a fondness for old cheesy favorites, while being aware of their flaws. This isn't a deep mystery to stretch your brain on, it's just fun little fluff, and sometimes that's ok. ( )

Christopher "Kit" Holmes cannot turn down a request to help out his former mentor, Anna Hitchcock. And he certainly wishes he could. But she's called to ask him to step in and host a writing retreat at her home and he must heed the call. And to do so he must cancel yet another weekend with J.X. Moriarty, his new boyfriend, putting strain on an already tenuous relationship.

But Kit finds his problems are worse than he imagined after he arrives at Anna's home. The fall that led to her injury and inability to host the event herself--well, it may not have been an accident. Anna suspects someone purposely injured her. And as Kit learns more about the various attendees at the writing retreat, he quickly learns that pretty much everyone around him has some level of motive for being the culprit. And Kit once again becomes an amateur sleuth, trying to find answers and unwittingly putting himself in danger. But will he be able to find out the truth before anyone else is hurt? And will he be able to make up with J.X. when all is said and done?

If you've read the first book in this series, you can expect a similar feel and approach in this second installment. Kit wanders unknowingly into a case and falls deep into his quest to solve it. Unexpected twists and turns fall onto his path along the way. And the danger becomes very real to him on more than one occasion. What's different here is that the ending doesn't wrap up quite as nicely as the first book. And probably not quite as nicely as most readers would like to see. But just as life is complex and doesn't always go the way we'd expect or like, I appreciate this approach on some level myself. ( )

4.5 ( )