Diane Kelly writes a very good series about an IRS agent, Tara Holloway, and a surprisingly decent series about a police officer and her K-9 (surprising because the dog has its own chapters).

This is not on par with those other efforts.  This was just short of awful.

The characters are good, but the author has fully grown adults running around saying “the b word” but not thinking twice about haring off to the home of someone they decide must be a suspect and “interrogating” them, flinging accusations around like confetti.

The plot was well constructed but just about smothered under chapters of introspection and a detective just short of being earnestly incompetent.  

Sawdust is awesome, but Kelly tends to give him slightly canine tendencies that don't quite ring true, and frankly, no matter how endearing Sawdust is, a reader can't help but wonder if this isn't a marketing gimmick to appease the cat lovers out there.

Disappointing, but this won't be a series I'll be continuing.

This one is going to be short.  The book is too long.  Too much stuffing.  If we shaved away all the targets that qualify as 'author's research she must share so her accountant knows those deductions are legit', and then shaved away the overly long descriptive narrative about the places she goes and the scenery, and - I'm sorry - perhaps pared way back on Bridgit the K9's chapters (which to be fair are already short), this book would have some highly entertaining, unusual investigations for the reader to enjoy.  I even didn't mind the back and forth between the good guys and the bad guys.  The scenes in the compound made me edgy and tense, left with that icky feeling I've also always had since learning about religious cults.  This ramped up tension was then offset by the lighter side as Megan proceeded apace with the missing mother and the garage door burglary cases.

So, it was just an ok read, because it was way too overstuffed; done a disservice by a well meaning, but lax editor, but under all that maximum verbosity, there's a good couple of stories in there with strong females characters, strong family values, and of course, the kick ass dog.  I know this author can write much tighter stories; I've read them, so I'll keep an open mind about trying the next one.

(Note: this review might be messy; I was wide awake when I started it and my medications have all kicked in in the last 3-4 minutes, so I'm off to bed.  Any incoherence will be corrected in the next release - hopefully tomorrow.  :D   Night y'all!

Whitney Whitaker loves turning an eyesore of a house into a beautiful piece of art. She's just been given the opportunity to purchase a charming old house for an amazing price. She can't wait to renovate the place and get it on the market, but she's going to have to because her cat, Sawdust, has just found a dead body in the flowerbed. This is Nashville Police Detective Collin Flynn's first murder investigation and Whitney doesn't think he's up to the job, obviously, because he wants to put her behind bars! Whitney needs to solve the case before she loses the money she put into the house, or worse, loses her life.

I love that cover. I was pleasantly surprised by this first book in a new series. I liked the main character, Whitney. She had her share of problems but always persevered. She was a hard worker, loved her family, friends and her little Sawdust and appreciated all they did for her. I love home renovations, flipping, interior decorating and everything else that goes along with making a house beautiful and homey and this book didn't disappoint. At first I groaned at Sawdust having his own chapters, but that was before I read a word of them - they're short and sweet, are totally adorable and added a huge dose of cuteness. I liked the mystery. I was convinced I had it figured out from the very beginning and I'm so happy I was wrong. A page-turner for sure. I can't wait for more!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC.

Not my favourite of the series, but not bad.  It had fewer mini-plots running concurrently, in fact, there was only one, and I missed them.  Kelly is really good at those multiple mini-plots and they keep the story moving and lively.  Without them, this one dragged a bit.

Tara is undercover here, working directly for the mobster's wife in her restaurant and the scenes with the wife were probably the best in the book.  I liked the dynamic between her and Tara.  Unfortunately, the rest of the storyline failed to catch my complete interest.  Tara didn't do much in the way of investigating at all and that's some of my favourite parts of past stories.

It was still a solid read and hopefully in the next book the author will have Tara back to juggling her usual caseload.

Total pages:  325  

$$: $9.00 (location multiplier)

It's been awhile since I picked up a Tara Holloway novel, and I don't know why - they're really fun and better built than your average cozy.  Needing to read a book where the character had to be good with a gun was just the motivation I needed to get back into the series.

In this book Tara is investigating an email scam, a Facebook scam, and two non-profits that might not really be non-profits; one of these involved an animal sanctuary, and up-front, I skimmed a lot when this story line came forward, although the wrap up of it was awesome.  Running through the whole of the story is her boyfriend and best friend (an IRS and DEA agent respectively) going deep undercover against the Mexican drug cartel.  

While Tara's investigations are relatively lightweight and suffuse the storyline with humour, the cartel storyline is not light.  Kelly has done her research and, while she has a tendency to overshare that research with readers sometimes, here it's relevant, timely and the perfect hook for setting the level of danger involved.  Tara contributes once or twice, but is mostly in the dark about what's going on until the end.  And the end is unbelievably tense for a cozy and the happy ending doesn't come without scars and baggage.

My biggest complaint about the book is the level of internal dialog the reader has to put up with as Tara agonises over Nick's safety and whether or not he's alive.  There was just a little too much of it and it became tedious.  Otherwise, a great read and I'm glad I already have the next one ready to go.

Total pages:  336

$$: $6.00