Monday, February 23, 2015

Murder of Magpies

Title: Murder of Magpies
Author: Judith Flanders
Publishing: February 24th 2015 by Minotaur Books
Format: ARC eBook; Hardcover Pgs 288
Genre: Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and Monitaur for an opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

Am I the only person that hopes that this will become a series?

Other than the complete confusion I had with the money-laundering scheme, I really enjoyed Samantha Clair as a lead character. There was something refreshing and endearing when a character in an “almost” cozy mystery uses her brain and not just her love interest to help her solve a mystery.

Book editor Samantha Clair is in a difficult position when her bestselling author submits a book that is almost too awful to print. She will have to put that on the proverbial backburner when she plans a meeting with another author whose new book proposal offers tantalizing gossip within the fashion industry.

There are people that do not want this scandalous book published so when both the manuscript and author disappear Police Inspector Jake Field shows up at the publishing house wanting Sam to answer a couple of questions. Of course, the inspector is handsome and Samantha is curious, but that is not going to get in the way of Sam finding her friend and answering quite a few questions of her own. Most pressing of which is -who exactly is that man living in the apartment above her.

There are many great characters in this book – namely her mother Helena that Samantha is convinced is a Martian or other life form since the woman seems to have supernatural powers and survives on very little sleep. Helena is hysterical throughout the book and most definitely keeps Sam on her toes.

I would not say that the plot was “un-put-down-able” but I would say that the characters kept me coming back and I hope that Ms. Flanders has more shenanigans with this group in the works.

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