Blog Blitz for Andorra Pett and the Oort Café

 

I am so excited to be taking part in this week’s Blog Blitz for Andorra Pett and the Oort Cloud Café by Richard Dee.  It was a great read and I enjoyed every minute.

 

 

 

Meet Andorra Pett; with her trusty sidekick, she’s taken over a derelict café. On a mining station. It just happens to be orbiting Saturn!
She’s hoping for a fresh start, away from all the drama of her old life. It’s a chance to relax and start again in a place where nobody knows anything about her or her past.

But the café holds a secret, and secrets have a habit of coming out; whether you want them to or not. And being accident prone doesn’t help. The more you try to pretend that you know what’s going on, the worse it gets.
Andorra’s plans for peace and quiet get lost amid the revelations and skulduggery and she soon realises that the fate of the whole station lies in her hapless hands.
In space, you can still trip over your feet; the question is, will you land upright?

 

 

Andorra Pett (Andi) is leaving her old life behind, that includes her cheating ex and the planet Earth!  Only her best friend Cy is allowed to tag along for her new adventures. This futuristic cozy mystery is set on a space station, where one might expect clear-headed, logical-thinking scientists to run the show.  Unfortunately, on this space station (which is really a mining station set up to harvest rocks orbiting Saturn) miners, farmers, single ladies and not-so-single ladies live out their own version of Big Brother!  When Andi and her new pals discover the body of the previous café owner (Mike), the race is on to track down the killer and the true motive.

Action, action, action… that’s what this story is about.  The plot never lulls.  It’s great. There is so much to figure out in this story.  It’s not just a matter of who killed Mike, it’s also about figuring out the relationships between and amongst the myriad of characters introduced.  Mike is portrayed as a ladies’ man but there’s much more to that story, which gets juicier and juicier as it unravels.  There is no shortage of suspects for this crime and motives are a dime a dozen, most of them extremely compelling.  Just as you think you have one relationship and motive figured out- bam! Plot twist!  The clues and red herrings are well-placed and very convincing.  I enjoyed trying to sort through and figure out who did it.

A few characters are well-fleshed out for the reader to enjoy meeting.  Andi reaveals bits of her background and alhough she would have been pegged for a quiet girl, she comes into her own.  Her feistiness and strength comes out especially when she belives someone needs defending.  She has some issues dealing with her love/ lust interests that could be improved.

Cy is a bit more of a mystery but provides an interesting contrast as Andi’s sidekick and best friend.

We see different sides of the station members with whom Andi interacts.  Some are more likeable than others but the character of each is fairly well-developed and makes the reader want to find out more about them in subsequent stories.

I kept referring to this book as a science fiction cozy mystery.  I’ll say it’s definitely more cozy mystery than sci-fi but there are some strong science elements.  While I may have appreciated more world-building, there are some great scenes to depict life in a space station.  Nothing is ever too technical and the descriptions flow into the story well.

Funny quote: “One of the advantages of being a short shrimp, as my mother used to say, was that you didn’t have to reach down too far to do a man serious damage.” 😳😆🤐

Some things I liked:

• Andi is cute, spunky and very likeable.
• The cozy mystery small-town vibe is cleverly recreated on a space station.
• This plot was crafty, crazy and clever.
• The varied characters brought in.
• The reader is never quite sure whom to trust.
• Strong attempt to explain what life on a space station many years in the future may look like.
• Andi’s scooper simulator scene.

 

I would love it if:

• The romance aspect was less awkwardly handled. Andi seems to be interested in almost every single man she comes across.

 

Overall, I loved this story.  The mystery was excellent and the pacing was on point.  Throw in a very likeable heroine and this is one cozy mystery you won’t want to miss.

I give this book 4.5/5 space-tastic espresso shots.

 

I’m going to be checking out some more of Richard Dee’s books soon and I can’t wait for Andorra’s next adventure.

 

 

 

Thanks again to Rachel’s Random Resources for the opportunity to feature this book.