The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant by Liza Tully

After lively discussions about bleak things, we were hungry for some brain candy and thus picked the book that seemed to be most cheerful. It's good to take a break from the mundane misery now and then - especially during festive holidays. We all know that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy - and I think we needn't fear the proverb saying that all play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.

This is a cozy mystery that also wants to shed some light on generational differences and how tough it is to be a twenty-something today. I think that we have not read many thrillers/detective stories in this book club, so I'm sure we'll have some fun discussions after having realized how starved we've been for these!

Goodreads sells the book as follows:
``A great detective's young assistant yearns for glory, but first they have learn to get along in this delightful feel good mystery.
Olivia Blunt doesn't want to be an assistant detective for the rest of her life. She's determined to learn everything she can from her mentor and renowned investigator, Aubrey Merritt, but the latter is no easy grader.
After weeks of fielding phone calls from parties desperate for the world-renowned detective’s help, a case comes across Olivia’s desk that just might be worthy of Merritt’s skills. On the evening of her sixty-fifth birthday party, Victoria Summersworth somehow fell over her balcony railing to her death on the rocky shore of Lake Champlain. She was a happy woman—rich, beloved, in love, and matriarch of the preeminent Summersworth family. The police have ruled it a suicide, but her daughter Haley thinks it was murder.
Merritt is ever the skeptic, but Olivia believes Haley. Plus, she’s desperate to prove her investigative skills to her aloof boss. But the Summersworth family drama is a complicated web.
Olivia realizes she might be in over her head with this whole detective thing... or she might be unravelling a mystery even bigger than the one she’d started with.``

The hardcover book, published by Barkler, is 400 pages, while the audiobook, published by Penguin Audio, is four minutes short of twelve hours.

Marry Christmas and a Happy New Year!