Death in December (A Jayne Belmont Mystery)

Author: Shonah Stevens

3.5 out of 5 stars

When a teacher who had been accused of molesting a student is found dead, it’s assumed to be a suicide. However, the school’s headmaster, James Leibinger, suspects that it might have been murder. With the police uninterested in continuing to investigate, Leibinger reaches out to Jayne Belmont of Plain Jayne Detective Agency to look into it. Struggling to compete with a larger detective agency, Jayne is thrilled to be investigating a potential murder, but will she be able to solve the case?

The mystery in this short story was really good. The identity of the killer surprised me, but upon re-reading some of the chapters I noticed the hints that were easily misunderstood. I liked Jayne. She’s very determined to put her agency on the map and gets along well with her assistant Holly.

While the mystery was good, nothing about the writing really stood out to me. There were some descriptions but not many. There were a few editing mistakes, but the biggest one is that in one chapter the text changes to italics and then back with no reason for there to be a change. I also thought how quickly she became comfortable and friendly with Leibinger was a bit unrealistic considering they had only met briefly once before.

I would have rated this book 3 stars, but because of the good plot and ending, I’m rating it 3.5 out of 5 stars. Overall, this wasn’t a great book, but if you’re looking for a short story with a surprising ending then you’ll probably like it.

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Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F9XUIZO

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