Category: Mystery

Sweethearts Can Be Murder by Connie Shelton

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, MysteryLeave a comment

Sweethearts Can Be Murder: A Girl and Her Dog Cozy Mystery (Charlie Parker Mysteries Book 19)
Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Charlie Parker #19
Publication Date: 2/8/21
Number of Pages: 308
** 3.5 Stars Rounded Up **

Charlie is alone at home and at work because her husband, Drake, is off fighting forest fires and her business partner, her older brother Ron, is on the first vacation he’s had in years. What does an enterprising CPA/detective do with herself while she has all of that aloneness? She gets busy and investigates not one, but two cases.

A teenager named Cassandra (Cassie) Blake entered Charlie’s office and asked to hire Charlie to find her missing mother, Jennifer Blake. Jennifer was reported missing over fifteen years ago and nobody has seen or heard from her since. Cassandra has been raised by her grandmother, Linda Arnold, who is now dying and Cassie wants to find Jennifer – or to learn what happened to her – before her grandmother passes away. Something about the young girl and her history pulls a chord in Charlie because of her own background and she agrees to help – as long as Linda is in agreement.

At the same time, Charlie’s Gram has a friend who is in her eighties but has taken up with a man in his forties. Once Charlie meets him, she is sure he is a charlatan only out for the older lady’s fortune. It seems they won’t be able to stop the marriage because the older lady, Iris, is totally enamored of Jeffrey Lougan and will not listen to anything her friends say. Iris won’t even agree to a prenup. Jeffrey seems very attentive to Iris, but when she starts feeling ill, her friends have to wonder.

Charlie has a time with her missing person case. It is as if Jennifer Blake just dropped off the face of the earth. Nobody remembers seeing her leave her home, but she was missing when Linda arrived to pick Cassie up for a doctor’s appointment. Cassie was in her playpen – all alone. The house was empty. Did Jennifer just walk away from it all? Did she run away with her ex-husband? Did something sinister happen to her because of something her druggie ex-husband did? Is Jennifer even still alive?

I liked the book, but it is not my favorite of the series. While the mystery is a good one, there is just no excitement in the story. It is a bit more like reading a rather dry newspaper account of something rather than actually living that moment in the story. Also, Drake didn’t even make a real appearance. I love those really exciting adventures where Charlie and Drake are tooling around together – in the helicopter or not – and all sorts of exciting things are happening. One other thing I’ll mention is that it keeps changing from one POV to another in the story. This didn’t bother me in the least and I thought it was a good device for telling the past story and the current story. However, I do know that switching POVs and timelines bother some folks, so I thought I’d just mention it.

This is a nice story, and I enjoyed the read, but it didn’t hold my interest enough for me to read it straight through. I honestly didn’t have any trouble putting it down to take a break.

At Sea: A Viv Fraser Mystery by V Clifford

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, Mystery, Scottish/HighlanderLeave a comment

At Sea: A Viv Fraser Mystery
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: Viv Fraser Mystery #7
Publication Date: 3/28/21
Number of Pages: 186

I’ve enjoyed the Viv Fraser series because she is so quirky – she is a hairdresser, academic doctor, newspaper journalist, consummate hacker, government agent for the NTF – you name the profession, she’s probably done it. She’s had relationships with both men and women and is currently unattached because of the death of her last lover. The writing is well done and the characters are likable.

There is a LOT going on in this book and it all seems to be left unfinished. Viv is still mourning the loss of Sal who was killed while working a case in the United States. She’s still trying to figure out what to do about the inheritance Sal left her and she’s also still trying to figure out – by fair means or foul, what happened to cause Sal’s death. She’s not even completely convinced that Sal is really dead. In addition to all of that, she’s called in on a case where something is going on in the Irish Sea and they need to figure out what that is. AND… some gangsters from her father’s past are harassing her. So, there is no shortage of story threads in this book.

DCI Marconi (Mac) and Val travel to Camp 16 on the Irish Sea to work on a joint mission with the military because something is going on and they are not sure what it is. Is someone trying to ‘recover’ the spent atomic fuel (uranium) that has been encased in concrete blocks and stored in an area of the Irish Sea? Is someone trying to recover old WWII weapons from the sea bed? Is something else totally different going on? There is excitement with boat chases in stormy seas, bomb explosions, and attempted abductions by US government FBI agents. Oh! Goodness!

The bones of this book were so very good and I enjoyed every word, but nothing was brought to completion. It was a total and complete cliffhanger for everything that was going on. That really bugged me – especially when you add in that I have no clue about what is in the wind for a relationship between Viv and Mac. Personally, I’d like to see them get together because I like both of them very much and I think they’d make a really good match for each other. I love mysteries, but I really need a good romance to go along with it, and I think Mac is the perfect fit for Viv.

Again, I enjoyed every word of the book, but it just wasn’t finished as far as I’m concerned. IF these storylines were going to be wrapped up in a future book, then there should have been some indication of that in this book. As it is, all of it is just left hanging. I’ll be looking forward to the next book to see what happens with it and hopefully, some of this will be wrapped up then. If not, I’m not sure how I’ll feel about that.