Book 81, 2018

[chez_jae]

Prawn of the Dead by Dakota Cassidy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Last night, I polished off Prawn of the Dead by Dakota Cassidy. It's the first book in her "Lemon Layne" cozy mystery series.

Lemon lives in Fig Harbor, WA, where she helps her rambunctious mother, May, run the Smoke and Petrol shop. They sell gas, souvenirs, and the best smoked meat in the area. Lemon fancies herself a sleuth, investigating such things as missing Ho-Hos in the store to lost jewelry. However, when Lemon stumbles across the dead body of her mom's ex-boyfriend, she finds herself at the epicenter of not only a murder investigation, but a horde of zombie hunters who are convinced that Myron was killed by a zombie. Worse, her mother is suspect number one, since she threatened to kill Myron after he dumped her for a foreign internet bride.

Now it's up to Lemon to find the real killer, avoid the zombie hunters, bicker with policeman Justice, keep her pet monkey out of trouble, and convince her friend Coco to help her. All in a day's work for Lemon!

The story was lite and funny. It was a bit "out there", but it never pretended to be anything else, and that really just added to the charm and humor. Lemon is a likable heroine, Coco is more calm and a foil to Lemon's zany personality. I loved May, who was a hoot. Had a little trouble warming up to Lemon's pet monkey, but that can be attributed to my pathological fear of monkeys, instilled in me when I was five years old. Ugh.

Favorite line: "You put your foot down and put it down hard. A line has to be drawn, and brisket's where it starts."

Very good, four stars.