The second book in the series. I enjoyed the first one, so I just kept going into this one. And although these books are not as crafted as, let’s say, the …in Death series by J.D. Robb, I had a good time reading them. I don’t know when I’m going to read the third, because after a while the books tend to be the same as the previous one. Just a nice, quick and enjoyable read.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...I love this series! Brett Kavanaugh owns The Painted Lady, a high-class tattoo shop in Las Vegas. I love Brett but I also really like her cohorts Bitzy, Joel and Jeff. I also like her long-suffering brother (the cop) who puts up with Brett's interference in his cases. In this one, a famous client is found murdered and Brett is the prime suspect. Of course, she's vowed to stop investigating but she just can't help herself and once again finds herself in the middle of everything with police scrutiny on one side and rabid fans on the other. Oh I guess I should tell you that someone is setting her up to take the fall for the murder in various and interesting ways. This is one that kept me turning pages. Though I figured out part of the mystery, I was surprised by the ending.
Pros:* Vegas* Tattoos* MysteryCons:* Is this really a mystery?I learned a new term, "cozy mystery." Evidently there is an entire sub-genre of crime fiction that tends to have amateur female detectives who solve crimes in their hometown. This is definitely a cozy mystery. Though before learning this I would have told my friends, "it's a fun beach read."The characters are fun and the mystery is not complex. Much like Janet Evanovich's numbers series, the enjoyment is in the characters interactions and the situations, not in the mystery.
2.5 stars Cozy mysteries rank somewhere around chick lit and romantic suspense for genres I don't read much of, out of personal preference. The reason why I chose to indulge with The Missing Ink was because of the tattoo shop setting. I'm not sure if I was expecting more of an edgy slant than what was presented, but I guess there's only so far a writer is going to go in a genre which doesn't push the envelope very often.This doesn't mean that the book was necessarily stale or anything like that. What really stood out to me was the Vegas setting and unusual lineup of characters, which made for several amusing moments. This author has a light handed writing style which was easy on the intake.He stared down at Joel, as if Joel had all the answers. Joel just had a little pretzel salt on his chin. He wasn't Dr. Phil.While I liked how the writing didn't take itself too seriously (which I can't say is unusual for the cozies I've read, but even so, I still appreciate it), I found myself only truly gravitating toward the parts of the story which involved the characters and setting. It almost felt like this "pesky murder mystery" was getting in the way of me reading the parts which I wanted to read, and that isn't good. Granted, I think the "fast and not-so-furious" style of mystery is something I've never really taken to, which is why I don't really indulge much in cozies. So it might be entirely possible that this would work better for true fans of the genre. From what I can tell, the ratings are decent.Will I read book 2 in the series? It's doubtful, but I am not quite ready to ditch the book just yet. Maybe I will at some point when I'm burned out on the usual suspects and need a jolt of something different.
Tattoo artist Brett Kavanaugh does more detecting than tattooing. She is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. In this installment, she loans her car to Sylvia so she can get married at one of those drive-thru wedding chapels in Vegas. Only problem is the dead body in the trunk when she returns the car. Of course it being Brett's car, Brett is insatiable in her desire to find out why some dude from the wedding chapel wound up in her trunk. A lot of mixups and shenanigans later, Brett solves the case.
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