Book 37, 2023

[chez_jae]

Virtually Scared To Death by Gillian Larkin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I began reading a novella last night and, due to its brevity, I was able to finish it in one evening. It was Virtually Scared to Death by Gillian Larkin, and it's the first book in the "Julia Blake" cozy mystery series. The narrative is in first-person pov of the main character, Julia, who owns a cleaning business.

Julia is shocked to discover one of her clients, Mark Castle, dead on the floor of his apartment. The last time she saw him, he was working on a new computer game, and he said some odd things before arguing with a business partner. Julia begins to suspect foul play, especially considering the bottle of pills next to Mark's body were different than what she normally saw in his home. Although she shares her concerns with the detective inspector on the case, Julia soon learns she's a suspect, herself. It's up to her to clear her name and help bring a killer to justice.

This was shorter than I had anticipated, and it was basic and bland. If you wanted to introduce your tweens to cozy mysteries, this would be a good story to start them with. There wasn't anything wrong with it; it simply lacked substance and sophistication.

Favorite line: "Lower your lemon juice. We'll take over from here."

Average read, average rating: three stars