Helpful Score: 1
hen I was moving. Either would explain the lack of a journal entry. Ah well, here's a longer one to make up for it!)
I am curious to see how this extends into a series--a PI who specializes in reuniting birth parents & adopted children is an odd choice of a murder sleuth. Though, I suppose, more likely than a caterer or a gardener or other such things!
This is a cozy, but it's strength lies more in description than in humor. It is a mystery, not a humor book with a mystery tossed in. We learn a lot of the history of the sleuth in this book, which makes sense for a debut of a new series. That said, I hope future books take place where she lives, and not where she grew up.
I have to wonder if the male "lead" was brought to the forefront because an editor said "need a potential love interest". He's one of the reasons I hope future books are in a different town--because he was WAY too flat of a character for a recurring one. Other characters in the town were better done, but we kept having to have the sleuth's thoughts tell us about the male lead. I never got the feeling he was that good looking, other than I was told so! I never got the feeling they had a connection from youth, other than I was told so.
Which is a problem throughout the book. Way too much stuff is told, exposited, thought, and not enough of it is shown. The book is much too flat, and even the interesting characters seem to get muffled.
This is the first in a series. Given that, it has laid some decent groundwork and has an interesting lead (I like the fact she whips out contracts), and I can see potential. I can see it developing into quite an excellent series, but it's not there yet. The author needs a bit more work on pacing and characters to really come into her own.
I am curious to see how this extends into a series--a PI who specializes in reuniting birth parents & adopted children is an odd choice of a murder sleuth. Though, I suppose, more likely than a caterer or a gardener or other such things!
This is a cozy, but it's strength lies more in description than in humor. It is a mystery, not a humor book with a mystery tossed in. We learn a lot of the history of the sleuth in this book, which makes sense for a debut of a new series. That said, I hope future books take place where she lives, and not where she grew up.
I have to wonder if the male "lead" was brought to the forefront because an editor said "need a potential love interest". He's one of the reasons I hope future books are in a different town--because he was WAY too flat of a character for a recurring one. Other characters in the town were better done, but we kept having to have the sleuth's thoughts tell us about the male lead. I never got the feeling he was that good looking, other than I was told so! I never got the feeling they had a connection from youth, other than I was told so.
Which is a problem throughout the book. Way too much stuff is told, exposited, thought, and not enough of it is shown. The book is much too flat, and even the interesting characters seem to get muffled.
This is the first in a series. Given that, it has laid some decent groundwork and has an interesting lead (I like the fact she whips out contracts), and I can see potential. I can see it developing into quite an excellent series, but it's not there yet. The author needs a bit more work on pacing and characters to really come into her own.
