Murder in Half Moon Bay (A Jillian Bradley Mystery #1)
Author: Nancy Jill Thames
2.5 out of 5 stars
Jillian Bradley a gardening newspaper columnist, and she gets invited to attend a gardening conference to write a review. Luckily, her friends get invited too. But on the second morning of the conference, Jillian is shocked to look out her window and see a woman’s body on the ground. She runs down and realizes the woman is Regina Anatolia, one of the conference organizers. Having gotten to know Regina a bit the day before, Jillian feels compelled to investigate and help the police catch her killer. She realizes just how close she’s getting finding the killer when her dog is taken. With the help of her friends, will she figure out who the killer is?
Honestly, my summary feels more tame then the wild ride this mystery takes the reader on. Along with the dognapping, there’s mentions of an affair, embezzlement, even potential terrorism. There was almost too much going on.
But starting with the positives, there are a lot of good, detailed descriptions, and I liked the characters. Jillian and her friends have known each other for a long time, and their close friendship can be seen in the story. I do wish more information about her friends had been given, but maybe there is in future books. I also liked all of the side characters, especially the police chief.
Now for the negatives. First, I had issues with the writing, which sometimes felt disjointed. There are some moments with skipped steps, like there’s no mention of her checking in at the hotel, instead she’s immediately greeted and the staff know her. She seems to have been able to skip the entire check-in process but there’s no context for it. Then she’s told she has a voicemail which she can check in her room, but she immediately calls the person back instead. I wondered if I was missing something, maybe she was given a not with the message on it? Either way, these things messed with the flow of the story and distracted me.
The mystery itself is interesting, but like I said earlier, it felt like there was too much going on. Especially when she asks her friends to investigate something for her, but by the time they report back to her, I’ve forgotten what she wanted them to investigate. She also asked her friend Ann to investigate some financial things, which she was able to do because she has a friend at the credit bureau. But at one point, I wondered if it was even legal for him to tell her those things. Which actually leads me to my final issue, which is that it was too easy for her to investigate. She never receives any push back from the people she talks to. The police chief is happy for her to help them investigate, including letting her sit in on interviews with him. Everyone kind of treats her as if she has previous investigative experience, but there’s no indication that she does. It just felt unrealistic.
Due to my issues with the plot and writing, I’m rating this book 2.5 out of 5 stars. Overall, the book was okay, but there’s better books out there.
Current price on Amazon Kindle: $0
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004CLYG9E
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