Missing Gun Plays Second (or Third) Fiddle

Private investigator Lucy James has had a few cases, but not a lot of money is coming in. A man hires her to try to track down a missing gun, which he states belonged to Billy the Kid. Lucy’s dad gets fired from his job as a children’s television show presenter. Lucy’s best friend is getting married and involves Lucy in the planning. Lucy’s on-again-off-again boyfriend shows up as well.

Will Lucy find the missing gun? Will it be Billy the Kid’s gun? What will her father do about his job? What other people and events will keep Lucy from focusing on her career?

Unfortunately, this book is more cozy than mystery with all the peripheral events going on in Lucy’s life that seem to take precedence over her job of finding the gun. I think sometimes it is hard for cozy mysteries to balance both aspects of the genre. I would have liked to have seen the more action and conflict in general and more about the gun that’s mentioned in the title specifically. Instead, the book seems to focus more on Lucy’s private life with all that is going on with her father, her friend, and her boyfriend.

The book has more than the typical number of issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage. Commas seem to be specifically problematic, as they were always missing around the coordinating conjunction that joins two independent clauses in a compound sentence. The use of hyphens did not follow standard usage rules. The book was rife with false subject and impersonal passive sentence constructions. There was awkward phrasing as well (“My open mouth closed and frowned”), and an over-reliance on certain pet words like *smirk*. Smirk and sneer are two words that I think are overused in fiction, and they were overused here; once, both were used in the same sentence!

The book was also a strange combination of narrative prose and dialogue in a couple of different ways. It is a pitfall of first-person perspective that there can be long narrative prose passages without any breaks of short paragraphs or dialogue. Yet, there were some sections of the narrative prose were too choppy, with a lot of single line paragraphs or short paragraphs in a row. These alternating issues with narrative prose happened often in this book, which made it more difficult to read. The dialogue sections had the latter problem as well. These sections were often just line after line of short back-and-forth between characters. Also, there didn’t seem to be much to distinguish the speech between different characters.

Things That Go Bump on Fright Night

At the B&B, they’re putting on a special Halloween Fright Night. The crew works extra hard to create decorations and food as well as prepare stories to tell on their ghost walk tour through the building. People are staying at the B&B just to have the complete experience. And what an adventure they get when, as the ghost tours are happening, strange sounds and laughter are heard that seem to be coming out of nowhere. It’s all in good Halloween fun, right? But things are not as they seem when one of the guests turns up murdered. Then while doing an investigation, a hidden tunnel is found, but Brenda is not alone…

Who murdered the guest? Is it the crazy-looking guy in the tunnel? What is up with those strange sounds? Is anyone else in danger?

I enjoyed the setup of this book, as we get to meet each of the overnight guests as they sign in. It reminded me of Clue, where a strange cast of characters comes together, and in this fishbowl, much can go awry… especially on Halloween! This small town, even without B&B guests, has a fantastic set of quirky characters, and I love to see the interactions between couples and friends. Despite how murdery this town seems, I think it might be fun to live there.

Chick Lit with a Side of Mystery

This prequel to the Read Wine series introduces us to the three ladies who will be running the bookshop/coffee and wine bar. The first part of the book feels more like chick lit rather than a mystery. All the women seem to be at pivotal points in their lives when they decide to make open the store (divorce, losing a job, etc.). Soon, however, days before they get the shop going, things start to seem to go awry. Who is trying to thwart them?

This is a very short prequel that ends on a cliffhanger, unfortunately. The book does have some issues with formatting. I did receive an ARC of this, so I don’t know if the problem exists as well in the commercial download. I did check the 10% available on Amazon, but it ended just before the problems with formatting started in my edition. Along with these formatting issues, there are some problems with grammar, punctuation, and usage.

I like the interaction of the three friends, and I’m interested to see how that pans out in the rest of the series–as well as get that resolution did the cliffhanger.

Lawyer who Doesn’t Like to Practice Law Investigates Murder

Chloe is a lawyer who doesn’t like practicing the law! While working as an office manager at a law firm, she has been an adjunct professor of law on the side. Going to interview for a full-time position at Spencer University, she doesn’t expect to get it. She does, and on her first day at the university, she discovers the man she has come to replace lying dead on his desk. He was planning to take a sabbatical from teaching to defend a man who is charged with embezzlement, Randall Whittier. Chloe decides to go to the dead professor’s home, where she runs into Randall. Rather quickly she determines that he is not directly involved in the professor’s murder, and the two team up to help get to the bottom of what’s going on.

Is Chloe correct in her assessment of Randall? Who would want the Professor dead?

I enjoyed the second book of this new series by Laina Turner. I was expecting to see the amateur sleuth from the previous book here again, but I was pleasantly surprised so discover that, while the university is going to stay the same in the series, the amateur sleuths will change. I enjoyed the interaction between Chloe and Randall, two strangers who don’t know each other but want to figure out what has transpired.

Muddy Murder, Danger, and Romance

Emily and her daughter are participating in a reenactment of the Seminole War when Emily ends up falling over in the mud while trying to steady Detective Lewis… right on top of a dead body! After Emily’s previous misadventures in the other books of this series, Lewis tells her not to get involved in the investigation. Of course, Emily can’t help herself, and she drags her friends and families into it as well.

Who killed the high school principal at the reenactment? How will Lewis handle Emily’s involvement in the investigation? Will Emily be putting herself and those she cares about in danger because of her involvement?

There are so many things to like about this cozy mystery. I haven’t read many cozies where the story is told from the perspective of the amateur sleuth and the actual detective. I love seeing the story from both viewpoints; it added depth not usually seen when we can only know part of the story. I like that this was a longer cozy, as I have been reading shorter ones lately. This allowed the author time to build up some suspense as Emily placed herself and others in her sphere in danger. It also allowed Emily and the detective to develop their flirtation more.

If you enjoy cozy mysteries with a little suspense, a bit of danger, and a dash of romance, you might enjoy this book.