Archeology and Murder at the End of Summer

If you’re not familiar with the Shady Hollow series, they are fun reads for fans of cozy mysteries. When I reviewed the first book in the series, I mentioned that the authors described it as a mix of Agatha Christie and Beatrix Potter.

Shady Hollow is a quaint country village set in the north woods. You could easily see it as a town ripe for a visit by Miss Marple or Hercule Piorot. With the twist that this village is populated not by people, but by animals (or creatures as the authors prefer).

In Summer’s End the fox-y reporter Vera Vixen is convinced by her good friend and local bookseller Lenore (a raven who calls her bookstore “Nevermore Books”) to accompany her as one of a group of chaperones for local school students. They will set off on a week-long excursion to a place called Summers End, a famous prehistoric monument that is a two-day journey up the river from Shady Hollow.

Vera plays the role of sleuth in the Shady Hollow books, and her boss is a skunk of an editor at the local newspaper, the Herald. Vera convinces him that she’ll be able to bring a story back from the trip, even if only a human-interest story about the local village and its intriguing prehistoric site. She’ll be joined on the trip by Athena Standish, a vole and college intern who is hoping to learn the ropes of journalism at Vera’s side.

Luckily for the school group, the timing of the trip will coincide with the actual day of Summers End, the one morning of the year when the sun will rise and shine its light through an opening in the monument onto the “calendar stone”, signaling to prehistoric creatures that the end of summer had arrived.

Arriving by boat at the village surrounding Summers End, Lenore, Vera and the school group find the place full of academics from the local university who spend their summers studying the prehistoric site. Academic rivalries and jealousies are hard to overlook as Vera and Athena encounter many of the professors during a walking tour of the small village.

The trip goes according to plan until the morning of the actual Summers End day, when the school group gathers for the big event. But when the sun actually rises it reveals not only the calendar stone but also the dead body of Professor Durham, a big horn sheep who oversaw academic studies of the site and ruled with an “iron hoof”.

And just like that Vera finds herself once again plunged into the midst of a murder mystery. But this time Lenore’s sister Ligeia is a prime suspect. With Athena’s help Vera gets right to work. Is Ligeia really the murderer? What was the significance of the prehistoric artifacts arranged around the body? What role does the evasive antiques dealer have in the events of Summers End day? All these questions and more are answered in Summers End.

RATING: Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

RATING COMMENTS: A light, fun cozy mystery with the twist that all of the characters are “foxes and bears, mice and birds, squirrels and deer all living together in a civilized manner… except for the murders, of course.”

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I read an advanced reviewer’s copy courtesy of NetGalley and Vintage Books. The book was released July 9, 2024.