Golden Motel #1
Ellen Byron always brings it. In this series launch, exhausted TV writer Dee has found gold at the end of her particular rainbow. In her case, it’s an abandoned mid century motel in need of lots of love at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. She wants to buy it and renovate it with her ex-husband and now best friend, Jeff, whose life also needs a bit of a reboot. The two agree to the plan, sinking their savings into it. They’re happily renovating when their first guest checks in: an old fellow sit-com writer frenemy of Dee’s. He seems to be roundly disliked by everyone in town and in good cozy fashion he’s shortly dispatched. (It’s the end of his particular rainbow.)
Dee and Jeff are not only suspects in the man’s death, but it’s also not helping to be known as the “murder motel” and future reservations are being cancelled right and left. There are almost more catastrophes than any fledgling business – or business partners – should have to handle, but Dee and Jeff put their extensive knowledge of Law & Order to good use as they get to sleuthing.
The surrounding towns – Foundgold and Goldsgone – are filled with a delightfully solid array of quirky characters that Byron, with her talented pen, brings fully to life on the page. My favorite was perhaps the bakery-cafe owner Elmira who turns out to make the worst baked goods known to man, but a close second is the wispy Serena, who loves to create charcuterie boards and carries either her baby or her dog in a sling, while the other is in the accompanying stroller (they are wittily named Emmy and Oscar). Serena is married to a cutthroat agent who is frequently out of town. There’s also a delightfully Eeyore style Deputy Sherriff, Raul, who, after a bit of a bumpy start with Dee and Jeff, warms up to them and even welcomes their detection assistance.
The fast paced plot will nearly have you forgetting what a completely charming setting Byron has created for her characters. The longer Dee and Jeff are there, the more townspeople are introduced, and it’s truly a skill on the part of the writer to have all of them be memorable. I’m already looking forward to meeting them again in the next book.
Byron doesn’t shortchange the gorgeous natural setting surrounding the motel, or the reason that Dee is there: she needs to slow down and take a breath (literally) of fresh air. For Dee the country is full of different sounds and a different pace of life – there’s even old Stoney the bear lumbering around, causing a ruckus.
The motel itself is not shortchanged either, and Byron’s description of the old fashioned wood paneled rooms will probably have many readers of a certain age flashing back to their childhoods. I’m a hotel brat, and I always enjoy a hotel based series. I’ve recently enjoyed books by S.K. Golden and Vicki Delany, and I’m delighted to add another motel centric read to my list. — Robin Agnew