Mockingbird Court

Mockingbird Court (2025) Juneau Black (A Shady Hollow Mystery #6)

This is the final Shady Hollow mystery.

I’m not mad, though I am a little sad.

The authors have every right to walk away, and with a series as enjoyable as this one has been, I can see how hard it would be to keep up the quality of the stories while ticking all the boxes that made the books so phenomenal.

And I’d far rather they walk away now, then that they keep trying to write stories if their hearts aren’t in it.

So what is this final mystery?

Vera has returned to Shady Hollow from the city–a place she once called home. She did some research for an article, visited some friends, and then headed back, only to be unpleasantly surprised by a an unexpected visitor.

First, we aren’t friends. Second, last time you were here, you were told to leave Shady Hollow and never come back. And third, never call me cute. Not if you want to live long.

There’s been a murder in the city, and the prime suspect decided to run to Vera for help–not realizing that Vera herself had a connection with the victim.

She huddled under the comforter, curled into a near-perfect circle with her paw over her snout and her tail wrapped protectively around her, in a vain attempt to shut out the world.

Now I know this is the last book, it makes sense why almost everyone from previous books makes an appearance.

Bradley Marvel is very much himself.

Or maybe they didn’t like the way the last book was edited. I mean, that would be totally understandable. You know, we had a whole extra subplot where Percy meets a cougar and they nearly get married, but then the cougar is kidnapped by Percy’s archnemesis, and then Percy goes to rescue her, but then it’s revealed that she was working for the archnemesis the whole time, and Percy’s heart is broken—of course he still battles all the minions and wins—but the entire time he’s fighting, he’s really fighting his own sense of betrayal and sadness, and it’s tragic really. Fantastic subplot. But my editor said it slowed the pacing and the readers don’t care if Percy Bannon is sad, so he cut it.

There is (of course) a festival.

Sun Li had won the competition last year with his Soup’s In Pumpkin and Wild Rice Soup Dumplings. A few of the judges had wept actual tears of joy, the recipe was so good. The panda graciously decided not to enter this year, to give others a chance at winning. Instead, he’d been invited as the Judge of Honor.

And Vera and Lenore remain best of friends.

“Sorry about the less than friendly greeting. I thought you were a dark omen of my future.”

“Aw, you’re so sweet!”

And as always, stray bits of wisdom dropped in.

Everything is obvious in retrospect,” Lenore said. “When you’re looking back, you only see the path that was traveled. When you move forward, you have endless options in front of you.”

Characters: Vera Vixen, Chief Orville Braun, Lenore Lee, Lefty, Richard Renard, Priscilla Renard, Bradley Marvel, Darcy Montrose, Chloe McKibben, Geoffrey and Ben Eastwood, Walter Fallow, Detective Wendell Knox, Gladys Honeysuckle, Sun Li, BW Stone, Joe Elkin, Barry Greenfield, Ambrosius Heidegger, Mayor Windthrow, Callie Standish, Keats Loring, Violet Chitters, Thad Chitters, Flint Lennox, Dorothy Springfield, Mr. Unterwald, Muriel Lodge, Ligeia Lee, Lucy, Mrs. Binsley, Maverick Brown, Christopher St. Pierre

Cover illustrations by Perry De La Vega

Publisher: Vintage

Rating: 8/10

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