Hutchins Creek Cache

I was drawn to read Hutchins Creek Cache by the beautiful cover art of this Paige Mackenzie romantic mystery series, especially the evocative train adorning its most recent installment. The covers are all created by Keri Knutsen at Alchemy Book Covers. Although I have started mid-series, I didn't find any problem in reading the novel out of order as the mystery aspect is a self-contained tale and there are enough brief nods to the overarching romantic storyline for me to easily establish Paige and Jake's relationship journey.

The community aspect of small town America is very much to the fore here and there is a cosy, familial vibe throughout the book. Little Sam is probably the strongest of the characters - a wonderfully precocious five year old - and I particularly enjoyed Garner's creation and descriptions of Hutchins Creek itself. Is this actually a real town? Not knowing that part of America at all, it is certainly somewhere I would like to visit! This style of clean romance novel isn't my usual reading fare so I was surprised by several almost coy moments, but 'stronger' scenes would skew the book's dynamic and I liked the real affection between Paige and Jake. I won't talk about the mystery itself except to say that it is nicely plotted with a satisfying conclusion. Perhaps a couple of Paige's conclusions along the way are overly lucky leaps of logic, but it's fun to follow her investigation.