Welcome Home to Murder: 04/07/25

Welcome Home to Murder by Rosalie Spielman and Eleanor McCormick (Narrator) (2022) is the start of the Hometown mystery series. Tessa Treslow has returned home to New Oslo, Idaho after a career in the army. Shortly after her arrival she and her Aunt Edna find a body in the aunt's garage.

Tessa can't believe for an instant that her aunt would have killed a man and let his body under a car. Her aunt is a certainly strong enough but she's a tidy woman and takes care of her tools. So while she decides whether or not to stay, she will help clear her aunt's name.

Because Tessa is a vet there's a lot of discussion of PTSD, military life, and the difficulties of transitioning back to civilian life. Along with that is the town's concerns that PTSD or other mental health issues might have led to the man's murder.

She also makes friends with an amputee who teaches P.E. at the local high school. I suspect he might end up being a future love interest. He was probably the most interesting and well rounded character outside of Tessa's immediate family.

The mystery itself wasn't that hard to solve. I think some of the world building and character introductions added too much padding to an otherwise tight story.

The next book in the series is Home is Where the Murder is (2023).

Four stars

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