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Rating: 
Summary: Better Bauer
Review: Taylor's sleuth, Toby Bauer, is an overweight widowed waitress in a small cafe in a small town in north-east South Dakota. In this one the murder victim is her boss Aphrodite, whose long-lost husband has just turned up and promptly died.
This is light entertainment and not Great Writing. You have to tolerate cliches,corny sentimentality, and holding up of action for the first person narrator to reminisce and philosophise. The humor is home-spun.In earlier ones in the series there were some terribly poorly constructed plots and clunky writing but Taylor seems to have learned on the job and this is a tightly plotted mystery that builds up suspense and keeps the pages turning.
Incidentally, Lutheran Sunday schools can't have being doing a very good job if Toby Bauer thinks Moses preached the Sermon on the Mount.
Rating: 
Summary: A Real Page-Turner with Quirky, Lovable Characters
Review: After this book, I became a Tory Bauer fan and will look for the other books in this series. Tory is a bright, smart-alecky, lovable character that you root for. The story was very well thought out, and the ending was quite a surprise. I never would have guessed it. All in all, quite entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Mourning Shift
Review: I absolutely love her books, and I'm surprised that her books aren't a bit more popular. They are funny, and also have a sweetness to them. All her books are light and fun, and mourning shift is just as good as her previous books. Tory, the waitress and resident sleuth is a wonderfully real character, and the town of Delphi, South Dakota seems like quite an interesting place to me. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Mourning Shift
Review: I absolutely love her books, and I'm surprised that her books aren't a bit more popular. They are funny, and also have a sweetness to them. All her books are light and fun, and mourning shift is just as good as her previous books. Tory, the waitress and resident sleuth is a wonderfully real character, and the town of Delphi, South Dakota seems like quite an interesting place to me. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and funny
Review: I very much enjoyed reading MOURNING SHIFT by Kathleen Taylor. Once again, Tory Bauer, overweight, over 40, and over likely to discover dead bodies, is in fine form. Right away she discovers the dead body of an elderly man in the bathroom of the cafe where she waitresses. Turns out he was the husband of cafe cook/owner Aphrodite. Shortly after discovering the body, Aphrodite's step-daughter and her son arrive in town, making it a regular family reunion. Unfortunately, there's a bomber on the loose, and one of the main characters is killed. Tory investigates and soon puts all the clues together for a surprise ending.While the author did provide readers with all the necessary clues to figure out whodunit, I never put it all together. (A book is successful for me if the author can provide all the clues and still keep me guessing.) I also enjoyed the Woo-Woo Factor (the term used by mystery buffs to describe supernatural incidences in books). All the usual characters were back being their normal, quirky selves, providing additional laughs. A nice, light summer read perfect to take with you on vacation.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Kathleen Taylor is in fine form with her latest mystery, Mourning Shift. Tory Bauer, widowed, overweight, over forty waitress at the only eating establishment in town, the Delphi Cafe is crankier than usual. It's Halloween, her least favorite holiday, she's dressed as a munchkin from The Wizard of Oz and she's just discovered the dead body of a patron in the cafe bathroom. To make matters worse, he's the long estranged husband of Aphrodite Ferguson, the cafe's owner (no one in town knew she'd ever been married), his daughter and grandson have just arrived at the cafe to meet him and Tory has to give them the bad news. But the day isn't over yet. Within hours, one of the locals is murdered, blown to bits by a car bomb and the two deaths may be connected. When always inquisitive Tory starts looking for answers, secrets start popping up all over town. This is a terrific, fast paced, funny mystery full of great quirky characters. The writing is sharp and witty with dialogue so irreverent and down to earth, you'll find yourself laughing out loud. And though all the clues are there, the mystery has enough twists and turns to keep you off balance and guessing to the surprise ending of the story. So take a trip to South Dakota and join the fun at the Delphi Cafe. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: More Fun in Delphi, South Dakota
Review: Kathleen Taylor is in fine form with her latest mystery, Mourning Shift. Tory Bauer, widowed, overweight, over forty waitress at the only eating establishment in town, the Delphi Cafe is crankier than usual. It's Halloween, her least favorite holiday, she's dressed as a munchkin from The Wizard of Oz and she's just discovered the dead body of a patron in the cafe bathroom. To make matters worse, he's the long estranged husband of Aphrodite Ferguson, the cafe's owner (no one in town knew she'd ever been married), his daughter and grandson have just arrived at the cafe to meet him and Tory has to give them the bad news. But the day isn't over yet. Within hours, one of the locals is murdered, blown to bits by a car bomb and the two deaths may be connected. When always inquisitive Tory starts looking for answers, secrets start popping up all over town. This is a terrific, fast paced, funny mystery full of great quirky characters. The writing is sharp and witty with dialogue so irreverent and down to earth, you'll find yourself laughing out loud. And though all the clues are there, the mystery has enough twists and turns to keep you off balance and guessing to the surprise ending of the story. So take a trip to South Dakota and join the fun at the Delphi Cafe. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful read!
Review: Reading MOURNING SHIFT by Kathleen Taylor took me back home to small town midwestern life. I smiled. I cried. I laughed. And when I finished, I went searching for Ms. Taylor's other books about Tory Bauer, that fascinating 40 year old, slightly overweight waitress who solves murders. Set in Delphi, SD (which must, I believe, lie somewhere between "Fargo" and "Lake Wobegon"), MOURNING SHIFT is a delightful read for anyone who enjoys people. If Janet Evanovitch is the city mouse, then Ms. Taylor is the country mouse supreme!
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