Sophie “Phee” Kimball works in accounts payable for the police department in Minnesota. The only investigating she does is hunting down receipts for expense reports, but that doesn't stop her mother from assuming that she can solve the curse that is killing her fellow book club members. She begs Phee to come to Sun City West, Arizona before any more members wind up dead. Phee tries to calm her mother and put off the visit until the holidays but Harriet demands she come to Arizona immediately. After to talking to Nate, one of the local detectives she heads to Arizona, knowing he's willing to help her over the phone when she finds any clues or needs his help.

The story is well written with lots of red herrings. The story took several different twists and turns on the route to the big public reveal. This was a fun fast paced mystery with captivating characters.

I got an ARC of this book from netgalley and Kensington Publishing.

*SPOILERS TO FOLLOW*

 

I love this book. Mostly because of the main character, who is pretty much the antithesis of current cozy mystery heroines. She has to be badgered into checking into the murders to begin with, she constantly misses/misreads clues, and she only manages to get one out of four right when figuring out who did what. I also really liked that it was a murder mystery with no murderer.

Kwame Alexander paid a visit to our school this year, and every child received a copy of his book. For some reason I did not jump on this one as quickly as I did The Crossover but that is by no means a telling detail —it just got put in the wrong to-read pile (in the to-read-later, instead of the to-read-now).

 

Reading it this week I was again reminded of how blown away I was reading Crossover. I couldn't put it down, and then, I didn't want it to end. 

 

 

Dudes!! I know there are quite a few peeps in here that are big Experiment in Terror fans like me. And if you are you know the series ended *sad face* BUT did you know that Karina Halle just released the first book in a spinoff series centered around the other Palomino sister, Ada?!

 

 

I just found out about this a few days ago and the book went live today! Just thought I'd share in case anyone missed this info, and to let you know I'm so freaking excited about this and once I catch up on work tomorrow, I'm going to be all up in this book!! Anyone else planning on reading this soon? 

 

The first half of the book is about Rachel. She's pretty snarky and doesn't like many people. She also seems to have a tendency to go off half cocked. Her social circle consists of her best friend, Darla, and "Robathy" (Rob), her ex-boyfriend from high school. Rachel owns the only bookstore in town. Darla is her business partner. Rob owns the local bar. Cameron, Rob's best friend from high school, moves back to town. Rachel hated Cameron. In return, Cameron hated Rachel. Now that they're in the thirties, Rachel sees that Cameron is a lot different from how she viewed him in high school and finds herself interested in him.

 

The story is pretty light on details. Cameron was the star football player and dated the head cheerleader, but he seems nothing like that person now. He hasn't dated in a while because he's "working on himself". He has a chihuahua, he drinks green tea and he does yoga. We don't ever find out why Rob is called "Robathy" or why Cameron thinks he needs to "work on himself". The first half of the book comes to an end and Rachel's story is basically over without Rachel or Cameron having a real date or there being any real romance or wooing.

 

The second half of the book is Darla's story. I enjoyed it more. She had more of a connection with Eli, her son, Milo's, teacher. But, it also ended without much closure. There weren't any details about how Milo dealt with his mom dating his teacher, etc.