Murder Strikes a Chord by Heather Weidner

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Author. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Murder Strikes a Chord

by Heather Weidner

Series: Pearly Girls Mysteries #1
Series Rating:
on March 18, 2025
Setting: Ivy Springs, Virginia
Genres: Cozy Animal Mystery
Pages: 230
Format: Kindle, Paperback
Source: the Author
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon

Veronica Mars meets The Golden Girls as event planner Cassidy Jamison and her four sixty-year-old employees race to solve a rocker’s murder before the curtains close on their show and their business.

When Cassidy Jamison inherited her late grandmother’s event planning business, she also inherited her grandmother’s friends—four sixty-year-old women known around town as the Pearly Girls—as part-time employees. Now Cassidy barely has time to breathe between spending every waking hour trying to keep her business afloat and the Pearly Girls out of trouble and focused on event planning.

So when she lands a three-weekend event complete with a chart-topping band, she’s thrilled. Until she and her chihuahua mix Elvis find the body of the Weathermen’s lead singer in her venue’s koi pond. With the help of the not-so-helpful Pearly Girls, Cassidy must stave off the bad publicity, navigate the prying questions of the local police department, and solve the murder before the media frenzy shutters her business for good, and takes one of the Pearly Girls with it.

Murder Strikes a Chord by Heather Weidner brings Cassidy Jamison into solving a mystery that happened in her backyard.

Can Cassidy keep one of the Pearly Girls from going to jail? Would the event planning business be done for good?

Cassidy Jamison

Cassidy Jamison owns and runs the event planning business her grandma left to her. The land that the event planning business is on has been in her family for generations, and Cassidy is glad to be back where her roots are. Cassidy is a bit of a workaholic because she lives in the farmhouse where the business is based. She is a loyal person who would go to the ends of the earth to protect the people she cares about, or at least go sleuthing to keep someone out of jail. I had fun with Cassidy and her dog, Elvis, solving the mystery.

The Pearly Girls

The Pearly Girls are Cassidy’s grandma’s friends from her childhood. The four older women are a hoot when they decide to do something. Roxie, Ruthanne, Aileen, and Kate make up what remains of the Pearly Girls, and they also work for Cassidy at the event planning business. I love the four women as they are so much fun to read about, the hijinks that they get into, and how poor Cassidy is supposed to help them out of a jam.

The Mystery

Cassidy and Elvis found the dead body in her koi pond while she was out for a walk. This mystery was quite a doozy. I had the actual killer in my head as a possible suspect, but I didn’t think that it was right, and then I went with a red herring before being steered back to my original idea. Good job, Ms. Weidner, on keeping me on my toes with this novel.

Four Stars

My rating for Murder Strikes a Chord by Heather Weidner is four stars. I liked this mystery a lot, as it kept me guessing on who could have pulled it off, and the biggest kicker was the motive. I always get stuck on the motive part, and this one was no different. Ms. Weidner crafted an excellent mystery in this series starter.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Murder Strikes a Chord by Heather Weidner.

Happy Reading!

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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2025 Cloak and Dagger
• 2025 Craving the Cozies
• 2025 Cruisin' thru the Cozies
• 2025 Goodreads RC
• 2025 Medical Examiner Mystery RC

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