The Kari AnnAlysis

Hilde is a hairdresser who is about to get a huge case dumped in her lap. Now she’s not just any hairdresser, she’s hairdresser extraordinaire to the dead. That’s right, she is the one who fixes the hair before the funerals. But when she mistakenly gets a sneak peek at Mabel, when it’s time to really get Mabel purdied up, something isn’t right. This isn’t the same Mabel as before and then things really start to get weird.

I got this book throughNetGalley. I am loving how many options of reading genres I am able to get through by using this website.

There were things about this book that I loved, like Hilde. She is great. She doesn’t be who people want her to be. She loves her job, who wouldn’t love not being talked back to? Dead people don’t care what their hair looks like. And she’s a reader. I can’t believe how many characters I’ve met recently that are readers. That makes me immediately love them.

I loved Hilde’s personality and her friendships. She is nice to everyone, except her mom. But Hilde has some problems that she can’t quite pinpoint and once she is able to, her mom will be all but forgiven.

Now I know that there has to be other little plots throughout the story, but the ones in this book almost made me forget that Mabel was missing. Although Hilde didn’t spend a lot of time across the street with her neighbor, or out with her new boyfriend, I felt extremely connected to those scenes and those are the ones that I remember the most.

I do give Mehl props because I had no idea who the killer was. But I wasn’t a big fan of the reveal. Hilde has photographic memory, it comes to her and next thing we know, they’re talking about it at dinner and everyone is explaining how it all went down. This was a creative way to get the story told, so I kudos Mehl for that, but it kind of took the blow out of the killer being caught. It was quiet like Mabel, so it fits the book, it just wasn’t what I expected and I had to go back and read it a couple of times because I kept feeling like I was missing something.

I give Missing Mabel 3 bookmarks. Now, there is a second book in this series coming out in February. Since I liked Hilde so much, I will most likely give this series another chance!

This book was released August 1. Order a copy here!