Book 42, 2019

[chez_jae]

Murder in Tropical Breeze by Mary Bowers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Stayed up about ten minutes past bedtime (gasp!) to finish an ebook last night. It was Murder in Tropical Breeze by Mary Bowers, and it's the first installment in the "Tropical Breeze" mystery series. Main character is Taylor Verone, a mature, semi-retired woman who runs the local animal shelter (Orphans of the Storm) and its affiliated secondhand shop, called Girlfriend's.

Taylor is called out of bed in the middle of the night to rescue a litter of motherless kittens. She is surprised to see her elderly friend, Vesta Huntington there. Taylor is even more surprised to learn that Vesta had passed away hours earlier. Vesta appears to her again, insisting that she was murdered and asking Taylor to find the culprit. Vesta had called upon Egyptian goddess Bastet, and when Taylor dons a necklace with a feline pendant that belonged to Vesta, the goddess comes to her in the form of a black cat.

There are no shortage of suspects, and it's up to Taylor to figure out who may have killed Vesta, and how. Everyone in Tropical Breeze has a theory, including Vesta's attorney, whom Taylor is kinda/sorta dating.

Hm. I liked the paranormal elements. I liked that an animal shelter was featured. I liked that our main character was a mature woman. Other parts were somewhat blah. Taylor would become subsumed by Bastet and not even know what she was doing. That was a bit off-putting. Characters were solid, even the annoying ones, and the plot was at least cohesive.

Favorite line: She was as grim as if she'd been prematurely buried and had just now clawed her way out to look for the guy who did it.*
I have no idea why that line sent me into gales of laughter, but it did!

An okay story, neither great nor terrible--average rating.