Retired San Francisco cop Brad Lyon is settling into a quieter life with his wife, Ashleigh, in Virginia's mountain country, where they collect and create teddy bears. But even here, stuff happens...
The day is here-and Brad Lyon is helping his wife put the finishing touches on her best bears, just in time for the Shenandoah Valley Teddy Bear Extravaganza. The event will draw fur-ball fanatics from near and far to buy, sell, or simply ogle the bears. But the main event will be the showing of the Mourning Bear, made to commemorate the sinking of the Titanic-and worth a hefty $150,000.

Then a local also meets a watery grave-and Brad Lyon spots the body floating in the Shenandoah. Old habits die hard, so Brad starts investigating like a homicide cop and finds the deceased might have had a connection to the Mourning Bear. But the local law would prefer that Brad keep his mouth sewn shut... ( )

The first novel of a fun cozy mystery series set in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. The main character is retired on disability from the San Francisco Police Department and now helps his wife with her burgeoning business of designing teddy bears. He becomes involved in a murder investigation when he discovers the body on his property, but the town sheriff is obviously involved in a cover-up and the town seems to seethe with petty corruption. The mystery was well-plotted, and I really enjoyed the main characters. I did find the idea of a toughened, retired San Francisco cop taking to teddy bears rather over-the-top, but I suppose it is possible. ( )

Brad Lyons had been a Homicide Inspector for the city of San Francisco before he was shot and permanently disabled and forced to retire. With his wife Ashleigh they move back to her hometown and started an artisan business of creating teddy bears.

The morning of the Great Teddy Bear Extravaganza, the body of a man washed up on their land and County Sheriff, without even examining the body, determined that it was an accidental drowning. Brad tried to explain to the Sheriff all the signs that pointed to a murder by strangulation, but he was told emphatically that t was a drowning and to keep his nose out of it if he knew what was good for him. As Brad and Ashleigh headed to the Extravaganza they were stopped by the sheriff's deputy (his son) and given several tickets as a warning of what trouble they could get into if they didn't comply with the Sheriff's request.

The story is cleverly woven so that the clues emerge to the characters and the readers at the same time and the characterizations as they develop are entertaining and delightful. I have the next in the series and look forw3ard to it immensely. (I would even if I wasn't an arctophile.) ( )

First Line: It was just before dawn on Saturday morning, the first day of October, and I again awoke to find myself in a strange bedroom... only this time my wife, Ashleigh, was gone.

I almost stopped reading this book after a few pages when I deduced the Bad Guys. However, it didn't take much persuasion for me to continue reading because of the voice of the main character. Brad Lyon is a former San Francisco police officer who was seriously wounded and forced to take early retirement. Retirement just happened to take him and his wife, Ashleigh, from "the world's largest unfenced lunatic asylum" (Brad's description of San Francisco) to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Brad's wife makes teddy bears, and the two of them are ready to load up the truck and take all the bears to the Shenandoah Valley Teddy Bear Extravaganza where the Mourning Bear-- made to commemorate the sinking of the Titanic-- will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Before Brad can even get in the driver's seat, he finds the body of a man in the river, and once he and his wife make it to the Extravaganza, he learns that the Mourning Bear is missing. Add to all this the fact that there are strange goings-on in the small town of Remmelkemp Mill, Virginia, and Brad has his hands full.

I am so glad I kept reading The Mournful Teddy. I fell in love with Brad and his wisecracks and the fact that there are at least 900 reasons why he's madly in love with his wife of twenty-six years. I liked his wife Ashleigh because she's one talented lady who loves her husband just as much in return and also for the fact that she's a policeman's wife-- level-headed, full of common sense, and definitely not the type to sit around wringing her hands.

Although I'd deduced very early on whodunit, the "how" was definitely convoluted and fun to try to untangle. I wish there'd been a bit more about teddy bears and collecting, but you know what? If I have to make a choice between teddy bear lore and Brad and Ashleigh, I'm going to choose Brad and Ashleigh. They're marvelous characters, and I definitely plan to read more of this series. ( )

I'd never heard of "cozy mysteries" before I picked this up while browsing the mystery section of the library. It's exactly what it sounds like - a mystery (in this case, involving what starts out as a homicide and quickly branches out into some other areas of legal code) that's a light and sometimes funny read. The best part of the book for me is the relationship between the main character, Brad, and his wife. Maybe others will find it a tad hokey, but being a newlywed, I found it quite sweet. The mystery was very predictable, but honestly, after a few chapters, I was reading more to hear more from Brad and Ash than for them to solve the mystery I'd already figured out. ( )