Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Published by Minotaur Books on January 21, 2025
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
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A high-end wedding on a private island off the coast of Seattle sounds like something out of a magazine. But for bestselling mystery author Kate Valentine, it’s more like a nightmare.
Why Kate agreed to attend her ex-fiancé’s wedding is its own enigma, but she’ll plaster on a fake smile for two nights, with the aid of free champagne, naturally. And because the groom happens to be her editor, she’ll try to finish a draft of her latest Loretta Starling mystery as a wedding gift. But when the bride is poisoned and Kate stumbles across a dead body, she finds herself in a real-life mystery that eerily echoes the plot of her latest novel. And the only person who seems willing to help Kate catch the killer is Jake Hawkins, aka: the Hotstralian; aka: Kate’s biggest romantic regret.
As the wine flows and the weather threatens to hold every guest hostage, bitter resentments and long-held grudges surface amongst the colorful crowd. Anyone could be capable of murder, it seems. What would Loretta do? Unfortunately, Kate doesn’t have a clue.
She Doesn’t Have a Clue isn’t going to be for everyone, but it was definitely for me. Jenny Elder Moke is a new to me author. I really enjoyed the main character, Kate and how messed up she was in a cute way. The murder mystery on an private Island during a wedding weekend was engaging and I had a hard time putting this book down.
Kate is a writer who spends a lot of time in her own head, or more accurately in the head of one of her characters from the mystery books she writes. It becomes even easier for her to get lost in that fantasy life when at the wedding of her former fiancé, on a historic private Island, one of the attendees turns up dead. Kate is off to try and solve the mystery, since someone seems to be using plots from her books for the murder. To add to the chaos, Jake (not Blake from her books) is also at the wedding and someone has put him as Kate’s plus one. Kate may have harbored a huge crush on the adventurer she helped co-write books for, but does he also have those kinds of feelings for Kate?
This book has a few ridiculous moments, that I found hilarious, but humor is really subjective so this book is either going to really work for you or not. As various calamities plague the house, a storm also approaches and traps everyone one the Island in a house with intermittent power, at least one dead body and a so many taxidermized animals anyone might feel uncomfortable. There are also a long list of suspects who all have some kind of motive to kill.
“So, I’ve learned to embrace the chaos.”
“But I don’t want to embrace the chaos,” Kate said, shaking her head. “I want to . . . to organize the chaos.”
Jake chuckled. “It’s chaos, Kate. By its very definition, it can’t be organized.”
“Only because no one’s tried hard enough yet,” Kate said with grim determination.
I really liked Kate and her, I can be just like Jessica Fletcher and find the killer, attitude. With her can do attitude and slightly itchy thinking sweater she is off to solve the crime(s). The mystery of who is trying to possibly kill the bride and definitely killed another guest was interesting and fun with some false leads and twists. But the will they/won’t they tension between Jake and Kate was what I was really into. While you are pretty sure they are meant to be, I enjoyed the journey and revelations along the way.
The mystery was fun, the humor was great and the romance was swoony. This book made me want to look into the authors catalog and see if there was anything else I could pick up.
“I’ve waited years for this,” he said, his breath warming the inner shell of her ear. “And I’m going to take my time. Every last minute of it, Kate. Until neither of us can stand up again.”
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I think you’ve convinced me to give this book a try! It sounds like a fun distraction for weekend reading!
Fun easy read with a nice smolder to it. Hope you enjoy it.
Great review! I’ve read this author’s YA series and loved it. I’ll have to check this one out.
Nice! I saw she had some fairy tale re-imagining and I was trying to decide if I wanted to read those or her Samantha Knox series.
I just downloaded a copy of this after seeing how much you loved it! She’s a new-to-me-author, too. It sounds cute!
I hope you enjoy it too. I’ll be looking for your thoughts on it.
I haven’t read any mysteries this year yet. Eeee I need to get on that! LOL
But this sounds like a goodie.
I liked the blend of mystery and romance to it.
It is still early! You have time 😛
This one sounds right up my alley! Great review!
Yes it does! Hope you find some time to fit it in
This one is next on my list to read. I’ve seen some mixed opinions about it, so not sure what to expect for myself.
i can totally see that. If you like the MC and her personality, it is going to be fun. If you don’t it is going to be a slog. For me the humor really worked.
This sounds fun. I enjoy a bit of chaos and hijinks in my reads!
Me too…They can be so much fun.