Merry Bell talked her boss into letting her set up a branch office of his PI firm when she left Vancouver and headed back to her home town of Livingsky, Saskatchewan. But even if things weren’t as expensive in the small town she moved to she still couldn’t afford to rent an office and an apartment. Which caused problems. But when she found her new landlord she got her first case only she wasn’t sure that was a good thing. She also didn’t realize how what had been left behind in Vancouver could nip her new life in the bud before it had time to grow. Not that things were going all that well as she stumbled on a conspiracy in good old "Livingsky".

A very amusing story since I live in the place that's portrayed as Livingsky. Perhaps irrelevant to readers who are not familiar with this town, there were many moments of hilarity as I read out loud some of the not so much concealed identities: for example Alphabet City, St. Peter's Abbey Hospital, Merry's landlord (!!), etc. The characters are wonderfully idiosyncratic and the situations in which the main character (Merry Bell) found herself a fresh take on the situation of being nearly-homeless, and impoverished.

Not so enjoyable were the plodding passages that slowed the story-pacing. There was too much detail around the landlord persona and not very much backstory about Merry Bell or a seamless narrative involving a murder just as she left Vancouver for the prairies. Somehow this was a rather disjointed aspect of the novel. However, the dénouement was great: a subtle teaser, avoiding the pitfall of a cliffhanger. The next book (From Sweetgrass Bridge) will be very intriguing to see how Ms. Merry manages her budding PI career and navigates her continuing transition as a transgender gal in a potentially challenging local community. ( )

Merry Bell recently had gender affirming surgery to become a female.

There are two mysteries that take place in Livingsky. Merry was stated as being the murderer of her surgeon. Once she moves from Vancouver back to Livingsky, she is hired by her soon to be landlord to determine who sat fire to an apartment in one of his buildings.

Merry is forced to go back to Vancouver as the main suspect in the surgeon's death. While at the police station, she figured out who the real killer was and help the police catch them. She figured out the major and her assistant were tied to the apartment fire and was an attempt to make Gerald look as bad as his father. They were going to try and force him to sell so they could move forward for a project the major wanted.

Merry is still getting use to being a woman and having people like Roger (a cross dressing true crime podcast) and Gerald Drover (the landlord) who don't care that is a trans-woman is helping.

I really enjoyed Livingsky and will read more in the series.
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Good murder mystery novel with a side of drama in the city of Livingsky in Saskatchewan. The author has written the book as inclusive and gently covers a few topics that reflect the reality of todays society. Overall a good read and a setup for a possible sequel or even a series about LSI. Received as part of the LibraryThing early reviewers. ( )

The story and writing were fine, but I did find it to be a bit slow at times. The mystery often takes a backseat to Merry’s struggle to get her business up and running, to finding housing, to making friends, etc. It’s as much a character piece as it is a mystery story. I was expecting at least one confrontation with one of the small-city-Saskatchewan denizens over Merry being a trans-woman, but everyone she outed herself to was accepting of her. Certainly a future to hope for. ( )