Investigate A Willing Murder

Have you picked up a copy of my latest release, Magic Ain’t a Game? It is book 11 in the Reg Rawlins, Psychic Investigator series, but can be read as a stand alone. Grab it now if you haven’t already. And you can get book #1 in the series, What the Cat Knew for free or the first three books for $2.99 for a limited time.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.

I don’t think that I have read anything else by Jude Deveraux, though it is obvious from her Amazon Author page that she is a prolific author. But it looks like most of what she writes is romance, and I am not a romance reader.

A Willing Murder is well-written, and I would not have guessed that it was written by a romance author. The characters and relationships are good, but there is nothing racy and no sex scenes. One kiss, I think. The foundation for the murder mystery is solid and the characters are able to get from one clue to another without anything too unbelievable and without breaking too many laws.

The mystery is more about the relationships and what exactly happened before the two women were murdered, rather than being about who did it, because it is clear very early on who the murderer is. The characters may not see it, but an astute reader can. But knowing (or having a pretty good idea) who it was did not diminish my enjoyment.

My teaser is a quote that I bookmarked so I could go back and write it down later, and is about Sarah Medlar, an author character in the story. I got the feeling that she was an author surrogate for Jude Deveraux. I may need to get it printed on a t-shirt.

Her years of plotting made her an expert on what needed to be done and in what order.

Jude Deveraux, A Willing Murder

Sara Medlar is a household name in romance, with millions of books sold. But lately, retirement has been boring her and she’s found herself back in her hometown of Lachlan, Florida, remodeling the grand old mansion she’d admired as a child. It’s much too big for her alone, but she’d die before letting anyone in town know that.

Then Sara’s niece Kate is offered a job in Lachlan—a start in what could be a very successful career in real estate. She accepts immediately, but with so little saved up, she’ll have to approach her estranged yet incredibly famous aunt for a place to stay while she gets herself settled. But when she arrives at Sara’s home, she finds she’s not the only long-term houseguest. Jackson Wyatt already has his own room, and though it’s impossible to deny his good looks and charm—he’s clearly got her aunt wrapped around his finger—she’s also never met anyone who irritates her quite like Jack does.

However, when two skeletons are accidentally uncovered in the quiet town, this unlikely trio is suddenly thrust together by a common goal: to solve a mystery everyone else seems eager to keep under wraps. United by a sense of justice and the desire to right old wrongs, Sara, Kate and Jack will have to dig into Lachlan’s murky past to unravel the small town’s dark secrets and work to bring the awful truth to light.

 

Originally blogged at pdworkman.com