Forests, Fishing & Forgery

 This is the 3rd installment in the Camper and Criminals series by Tonya Kappes.  This installment finds Mae's campground full of families for the Labor Day holiday filled with quiet family fun.  Then a bachelor party rolls in and the groom goes missing.  During the search for him, the ranger, Corbin, suffers and unexpected demise which Mae discovers while on a hiking date with her romantic interest, Ty.  Needless to say this is a downer on the date.  While trying to determine what happened to Corbin and where the groom has gone, other suspects appear on the radar including a local troublemaker who walks away from community service time for a DUI.   Somehow, amongst all this chaos Mae and sheriff, Hank find a way to solve this crime.  

The mystery sets up opportunities for the relationships with friends to grow and for the reader to get a glimpse into the small town Kentucky life, politics and all.  My only complaint about the story was the seemingly sudden appearance of a drought in the area that could affect tourism.  My only real query about it is the suddenness and  seeming surprise to the community.   It seemed to me that there would have been some warning the situation was arising.  I am not familiar with the area of the country so maybe it really does come on that suddenly.  There were also some abrupt decisions in Mae's personal life that seemed awkward and a bit inexplicable but adds to the continuing saga with 2 potential suitors.  

These plot shortcomings did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the story and I look forward to reading more in the series.

Forests, Fishing, & Forgery by Tonya Kappes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars 

Great cozy in the outdoors

This is the 3rd book in the series and while a standalone there is some history among characters that make it a better read if you read others first. Mae is caught in the middle of strange occurrences again. This time Happy Trails is missing a camper and a ranger is acting out of character. There is some local nepotism and shenanigans going on in Normal and Mae isn’t certain if this is what’s at the center of the 2 sudden deaths of locals associated with the National Forest. The mystery twists and turns as does Mae’s personal life. 

There’s a drought starting which seems to come along quite suddenly which felt a little forced to me But not being familiar with the terrain this could be feasible and not just a plot stretch. This and a few plot line inconsistencies are why i didn’t give it 4 stars. All in all a fun book in an entertaining series 

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Challenge Prompts

The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:  

Possible prompts

I will decide as the year goes along which prompts I use it for on several challenges since it meets multiple criteria within the challenge.

1. AtoZ   #2021AtoZReadingChallenge  #AlphabetSoupChallenge  "F"
2. Finishing the Series   #FinishingTheSeries2021  Camper and Criminals #3
3. Color Coded # 4 green
4. Beat the Backlist #BTB2021  #15 first line is less than 10 words
5. Virtual Mount TBR #VirtualMountTBR2021   Book #12
6. Back List Reader  #Backlistreader  Book #12
7. Calendar of Crime  #CalendarOfCrime2021   
8. Cruisin thru Cozies  animal #1
9. Cloak & Dagger  #CloakDaggerChal  Book #8
10. Craving for Cozies  Book #6
11. PopSugar #popsugarreadingchallenge #22 set mostly or entirely outdoors
12. Around the Year in 52 Books #40. A book with flowers or greenery on the cover
13. 52 Book Club  #the52bookclub2021  #29 Featuring The Environment
14. The Unofficial Magnus Archives Challenge  #TMARC21  #19. Meat: with an animal companion/character
15. BooklistQueen   #41 A sequel
16. What's in a Name   #5 Botanical word 
17. Nerd Daily  #NERDREADING2021 # 39. FLORA OR FAUNA ON COVER 
18. Bookworm  #1 obtained from Kindle Unlimited, Audible, Amazon First Reads, Paperback Swap, or the Library
19. Magic in the Books 
• Book 6 #5 featuring an animal 
20. Spells and Spaceships Animal companion
21. Pick your Poison #19-4 A book with a peaceful cover
22. Medical Examiner Challenge 3 Toe Tags
23. Beachcomber Challenge  
• Crime Scenes 
• Row 1
• Pathway or forest
• Row 2
• Lake or ocean

Row 5
Home or business office

• Weapons
• Row 3
• Free square- anaphylactic shock
• Row 5
• Hands or fists
• Rifle or shotgun
• Detectives- Mae/Hank
• Victims- William/Alison/Corbin
24. Six Shooter Challenge  Target #25  Shot #3
25. 52 books in 52 weeks  #38 utopian
26. Unruly Reader Bingo  #20 quarantine