Miss Melville Regrets by Evelyn E. Smith--review

  This was an interesting read. This is the first in the series, and I had never read anything by the author. This book was first published in 1986.
I generally read mysteries, many of which are Cozies. I started this and found it to be interesting and well written, but not quite what I was expecting. 

 

Miss Melville is a member of New York's high society, but after her father absconded with his money (and other people's money) twenty years before, she and her mother end up with enough to live on to begin with, but as the years go on, the cost of living goes up, and the money doesn't go as far, in spite of living in a rent controlled apartment. 

Miss Melville is offered a job as Art Teacher in a school one of her relatives starts, but after many years the cousin decides to close the school, leaving Miss Melville without much of an income. She ends up accidentally crashing a fund-raising party, and meets several people who crash parties on regular basis. They give her advice on party crashing, and she begins to do it regularly, as it supplements her money by providing many meals per week. And then something unexpected happened...

I enjoyed this story. The book grabbed my interest fairly quickly, and nearing the end I found myself staying up late to finish it. I look forward to reading others in the series.

There are no gory death scenes, and I can't recall any bad language.

This book counts for several of my Challenges. It is  M for the Alphabet Soup Challenge, and is the first book for my Goodreads Reading Challenge and Craving for Cozies Challenge.  

It also satisfies the first topic in the Around the Year in 52 Books Challenge--"In the beginning"  as it is the first in a series.