THE MOURNFUL TEDDY - John J. Lamb

Having never had a teddy bear as a kid (I finally broke down and got one when I was about thirty, naming it Sebastian after the main character in Brideshead Revisited; go figure), I thought a mystery series set around the making of artisan teddy bears and their collectors sounded both original and fascinating, but The Mournful Teddy (first in the "Bear Collectors" series) was just too slow-paced and not quite engaging enough, character-wise, to hold my interest.  Brad Lyon, recently relocating with his wife Ashleigh to a small rural community in Virginia after an injury forced him to retire early from the San Francisco police force, finds himself being pulled back into old habits when his dog discovers a body floating in the nearby river.  Curious about why the local sheriff is far too keen to call it an accident, Brad finds himself wanting to scope out the situation, which soon becomes oddly connected with a local artisan teddy bear show he and his wife - who designs and custom-makes teddy bears - are entering.  When the prized bear of the accompanying auction goes missing, the body in the river looking more and more like the guy who was in charge of delivering it, Brad and Ashleigh work to solve the crime - in a novel much grittier than your average cozy, and one that plays out virtually in "real time" with the story (to me, having both an unrealistic and negative effect on the novel).  Sadly, I found Brad a bit standoffish and unlikable, Ashleigh and the supporting characters not very memorable or well-drawn.  I may or may not try another in the series, but while I still like this idea, the execution of this debut novel left me a little mournful, too.  **