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theavidreaderandbibliophile's review against another edition
3.0
Confound It by Maggie Toussaint is the fifth A Dreamwalker Mystery. Baxley Powell and her best friend, Charlotte welcome Toby Duncan and Sam Mayes for a weekend visit. The next morning Baxley gets an early morning call from Sheriff Wayne Thompson asking for her assistance with a case. The day before someone had set fire to a doublewide trailer where Mandy Patterson lived with her son, Doodle. It turns out that Mandy had been cooking meth, but her death was not an accident. While inside the home, Baxley is able to see how Mandy died. The authorities are more concerned with drugs than with the victim. Baxley wants justice for Mandy and closure for her son, Doodle. With help from Deputy Sam Hayes, Baxley dives into the case to track down a killer. There are a host of suspect including the nutty aunt, the controlling drug dealer, the crazy neighbor, and the son. But this is no ordinary case and it will challenge Baxley’s abilities. In addition, Baxley is fighting her attraction to Sam. While her husband has been declared dead, Baxley cannot move forward with Sam until she is sure of his fate.
Confound It is not a standalone novel. You do need to read the previous novels in A Dreamwalker Mystery series to understand Baxley, her family and friends as well as her abilities. I thought the Baxley is a well-developed with unique abilities. Baxley discovers something new about her talents in Confound It. I like that the author keeps changing things up, so it does not become stale or predictable. I did find Confound It to be a bit wordy. The author does include background details and information from the previous books which slows down the pace. There are quite a few secondary quirky characters which adds to the Southern charm. The mystery is multi-layers and readers will be surprised at the end. The paranormal elements enrich this mystery novel along with the Native American characters. I could have done without the jealousy Sam Mayes felt towards Sheriff Wayne Thompson (Baxley reassures him several times without success). I do want readers to be aware that there is foul language and an intimate scene in Confound It. The end of Confound It will have readers teary.
Confound It is not a standalone novel. You do need to read the previous novels in A Dreamwalker Mystery series to understand Baxley, her family and friends as well as her abilities. I thought the Baxley is a well-developed with unique abilities. Baxley discovers something new about her talents in Confound It. I like that the author keeps changing things up, so it does not become stale or predictable. I did find Confound It to be a bit wordy. The author does include background details and information from the previous books which slows down the pace. There are quite a few secondary quirky characters which adds to the Southern charm. The mystery is multi-layers and readers will be surprised at the end. The paranormal elements enrich this mystery novel along with the Native American characters. I could have done without the jealousy Sam Mayes felt towards Sheriff Wayne Thompson (Baxley reassures him several times without success). I do want readers to be aware that there is foul language and an intimate scene in Confound It. The end of Confound It will have readers teary.
hugbandit7's review against another edition
4.0
I have not read the previous books in this series so when I picked this up I must not have realized it was the 5th in the series. While this book could be read on its own, it is very helpful to read the previous books to understand Baxley and her talents and the other characters. There is enough detail about past books where it is not hard to understand the characters, but as is with any series you are better starting off at the beginning!
That all said, this was quite a change from the cozies books I normally read. It felt more "hardcore" vs cozy. I'm not sure if I can pin it down exactly, but it was a feeling that I had while reading the book. I enjoyed getting to know Baxley and her ability to find out from the dead what exactly happened or get answers to questions that their loved ones might have back on earth. The spirits are not always cooperative as Baxley discovers when visiting the spirit realm.
The mystery itself was well written and while I suspected who the "bad guy" was, I didn't know why. This character just set off my radar...but when it was revealed with the all the details - WOW is all I can say! Quite a twist that perhaps I might have expected had I read the first four books but perhaps not.
There is a romance between Baxley and Sam, but Baxley holds back due to her missing husband. There is some resolution to that situation in this book and it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.
That all said, this was quite a change from the cozies books I normally read. It felt more "hardcore" vs cozy. I'm not sure if I can pin it down exactly, but it was a feeling that I had while reading the book. I enjoyed getting to know Baxley and her ability to find out from the dead what exactly happened or get answers to questions that their loved ones might have back on earth. The spirits are not always cooperative as Baxley discovers when visiting the spirit realm.
The mystery itself was well written and while I suspected who the "bad guy" was, I didn't know why. This character just set off my radar...but when it was revealed with the all the details - WOW is all I can say! Quite a twist that perhaps I might have expected had I read the first four books but perhaps not.
There is a romance between Baxley and Sam, but Baxley holds back due to her missing husband. There is some resolution to that situation in this book and it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.
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