Wealthy Amelia Swain and get son Jeffrey book into the Hotel 1911. A hotel that is made to look from the 1911 era.
The chef is informed that she is allergic to shellfish. Soon she is found dead. So the main suspect is the chef, George, but Ivy Nichols, his friend and hotel receptionist knows him to be innocent so she investigates.
The story is told from her point of view and so we get all her thoughts which usually sounds like some teenager not an adult of 28.
For me there was too much about her mental struggles and Jung and not enough of a mystery.
This is a lightweight modern cozy mystery.
The blurb does not indicate that this is story set in modern times, unfortunately, as I find novice investigators revealing the truth before the dumb police irritating.
ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Ivy Nichols is the night clerk at Hotel 1911. The hotel was once her family's home before all the money was lost. Since it was her mother's family and her mother disappeared when she was in Second Grade, Ivy is keeping her relationship to the hotel's former owners to herself. She would like to find out more about the family though since she believes that the mental illnesses that have plagued generations of her relatives had their start there. Ivy herself suffers from anxiety and panic attacks.

Ivy's best friend is the chef at the hotel. When he is accused of negligence for allowing seafood to contaminate the meal of a severely allergic guest who dies, Ivy is determined to clear her friend's name despite knowing nothing about being a detective.

As Ivy looks into the lives and relationships of the hotel guests, she find lots of suspects. The woman's son resents that his mother holds the purse strings and is stopping him from making what he sees as a great investment. Another guest was a school friend of the victim who wants to try to rekindle a relationship with her. Still another guest doesn't want the son's investment idea to be realized since it would totally ruin his plans for an adjacent property. Then there is the organic farmer who supplies vegetables to the hotel who would also be ruined if the son's plans are realized.

This was an interesting mystery with an interesting main character. It was nicely paced and the suspense built through the story. ( )

It's so funny that I can review my own book here! :) Of course I love it. I hope you do too, or at least that it entertains you for a short while. ( )

family-dynamics, friendship, cozy-mystery, mystery, law-enforcement, Chattanooga****

Having spent some time there, I find it hard to think of Chattanooga as a small town. Smaller than Cleveland, but really?
I guess it just wasn't something that caught my interest. The was a mystery, but the greatest part of the book was the college age main character struggling with her panic attacks and other personal issues. The victim was easy to figure because she was clearly portrayed as an elderly virago, the police detective was a caricature of a controlling drama queen, the accused was pretty well done but it took forever for any forensic evidence to materialize. The characters were all well drawn and interesting. There were misdirections and red herrings, but all the ramblings of personal angst just seemed to take away from the mystery.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. ( )