Visited Leavenworth during Christmas season and discovered this book series set in Leavenworth itself. So I bought this one at the bookstore. The author gets the small-town atmosphere just right and I could visualize Front Street and the gazebo as characters made their way around town. Sloan co-owns Nitro Brewery and they've been mixing brews for the upcoming holiday season. But in the run-up to the November election, one of the candidates for city council is murdered. Sloan finds herself pressed to find answers into whodunnit. ( )

It’s wasn't that this book was really, really bad, it's just that it wasn't any good. Dull is the word I would use. It was so painfully dull that within reading the first 20 pages I would have happily murdered every single person in Leavenworth; considered it compassionate euthanasia to put all of us out of our misery.

The only way this could have been a good story, based on the way it was written, was for the main character and narrator to have been the murderer; a serial killer hiding in plain sight while others are hauled off to jail all the while proclaiming their innocence.

The only somewhat interesting part of the book was Sloan Krause's past, or the mystery of. While virtually the whole of the book, at least 70% is about food and another 29% about the good, wholesome, tightknit, loving Faux Bavarian village and it's awesome people, the absolute kitschiness of the place, non-stop tourism and / or tourists (THE HORROR!), and craft beer. It was a total dud.

There seems to be no reason for Sloan to be looking into the murder of this city councilman. Just because Sloan is the town busybody and everyone supposedly confides in her doesn't seem to be reason enough. What, the murderer is going to confess, and then go... oh, shit, why did I tell Sloan, now going to get the needle! Seriously? And Sloan is forever saying she shouldn't get involved, yet still does. Annoying. Add to the fact that she is light years behind the cops / investigators when it comes to solving the case, but that doesn't seem to faze her. All around odd.

And Sloan's method of detecting consist of solely finding a suspect based on whatever cockamamie motive she can think of, and that persons jumps to the top of her most wanted list... until she finds another suspect based on her newest cockamamie theory that usurps them. The whole thing is silly.

This wasn't my kind of book. ( )

I enjoy stories set in locations with which I am familiar. I have spent many pleasant hours in Seattle with Lou Boldt (Ridley Pearson) and J. P. Beaumont (JA Jance). The crime-fighting efforts of hard-boiled detective Sam Kovac and his wisecracking partner Nikki Liska (Tami Hoag) allow me to visit familiar areas of Minneapolis and Virgil Flowers’ (John Sandford) bring romps back fond memories romps that span the length and width of Minnesota. All take me to a place I know and love for an interesting tale.

I was attracted to Ellie Alexander’s “Beyond a Reasonable Stout” for that reason. I have spent many an enjoyable weekend in Leavenworth, WA. I love the town, it’s restaurants, and a good stout. It seemed like the perfect setting for a murder mystery. Unfortunately, the quality of the work was disappointing.

“Beyond a Reasonable Stout” is ostensibly about the recent murder of an almost universally detested local politician. In actually, it mostly focuses on the mundane day-to-day activities of Sloan, a middle-aged, divorcing, small-town craft brewer. Sloan’s daily routine involves brewing, foraging, baking, and going someplace in town to get lunch. While out and about various townspeople tell her things that cause her to immediately suspect them of committing the murder.

Sloan’s primary characteristics seem to be gullibility and lack of common sense. Based only on a brief conversation she is portrayed as suspecting almost everyone who talks to her of being the murderer. Never mind that Alexander provides a weak or no rational basis for her suspicion.

Sloan also lacks assertiveness and an ability to set appropriate boundaries. On more than one occasion a character tells Sloan something that could be true or merely a rumor and asks—demands—that Sloan investigate. Yet when Sloan asks, “Who did you hear this from?” the person replies, “I’m not at liberty to say.” This is the point at which any sensible person would say, “take a hike,” but Sloan concludes that it is her responsibility to investigate. It’s hard to get interested in such a weak protagonist.

The protagonist, Sloan, was an abandoned child who was later adopter by a family she grew to love. Yet her reaction is one of bazaar mistrust when her adoptive mother reveals that she may have had seen Sloan for a brief time when Sloan was a child. It is only upon reaching the end of the book that I begin to suspect that Alexander is trying to set the stage for her next book. I have no enthusiasm for reading another book by Alexander, but I do confess to curiosity regarding the revelations that will be forthcoming.

Alexander’s apparently never heard a superlative she didn’t like. Everything is awesome (smell of lunch), excellent (decision), perfect (pint of beer, ribs, an excuse), amazing (another lunch), or wonderful (silence, desserts, hot chocolate, business community) to mention just a few. Her awkward sentence constructions (e.g., we still have dozens of doors to knock upon) also require attention.

If Alexander spent a day hanging out with me I suspect she would conclude that my mundane daily routine would provide a suitable foundation for a murder mystery. I doubt that most readers would get past the first ten pages before tossing the book aside for something more interesting like a telephone book or ferry schedule. After one of Sloan’s nonsensical interactions with a person she decides is a suspect I wrote, “Feeble, feeble, feeble.” That could stand as a judgment for the entire book. Alexander needs to work harder to create plausible characters and scenarios ( )

Leavenworth, Washington has recreated itself as a tourist attraction town becoming a Bavarian village with all its breweries and German inspired shops, however, the incumbent city councilman is trying to change that by turning the town dry. When he turns up dead on the eve of the election, just about every business owner had motive to kill him. Sloan Krause is enlisted by April Ablin,, Leavenworth’s self-described ambassador of all things German, to prove her innocence, but can Sloan do that when it means that someone else she knows is the murderer?

This series is refreshing in that the background town and brewery where Sloan works are not your normal settings. Looking forward to more. ( )

Beyond a Reasonable Stout is book three in the Sloan Krause Mystery series, and the first book I’ve read by Ellie Alexander. I was blown away by her details of the German inspired village that this series takes place in. Alexander seamlessly combines architectural details with historical information. I found it fascinating and would continue the series just to read more details.

Alexander also incorporates brewing beer perfectly into the book. I never got pulled out of the story when she described the process or history of beer making. And since we make wine (from kits) I found it interesting how the two processes are similar, and I read a few tips that we may incorporate into our wines.

Besides her great details and history for the village and beer brewing, Alexander writes characters that are very developed. April had me cringing and laughing and Kristopher had me wanting to stab him myself! I enjoyed how the chief wasn’t hostile towards Sloan, knowing that she would be throwing herself into the investigation, even though Sloan kept trying to stay out of it. In fact, the police even gave Sloan a wink or three of encouragement.

I had the killer figured out early on, just because of a strange incident that stood out to me. But I did not know their motive. But Alexander does a great job giving you various suspects to keep you guessing. And the way Beyond a Reasonable Stout has another (I’m thinking huge) mystery to figure out in the next book or two will really draw the reader back for more!

A fantastic series in the cozy mystery genre. If you want to start the Sloan Krause Mysteries from the beginning, you’ll want to get Death on Tap. ( )