From USA Today bestselling author Kelly Rey comes a hilarious mystery with a sparkling twist ?Diamonds are not always a girl’s best friend. At least that’s what legal secretary turned reluctant sleuth Jamie Winters realizes when a dead body shows up on her boyfriend, Curt’s, patio…with a pocket full of diamonds! The dead woman was Amber Freeling, an old college friend of Curt’s, and the deeper … deeper Jamie digs into her death, the more it appears someone was out to get Amber. With the help of her teenage sidekick, Maizy, Jamie tries to determine if Amber was an innocent victim or a jewel thief. And as the case leads them to a shady pawnshop and its shadier staff, Jamie realizes no one is whom they appear to be and everyone is a suspect. Was it the wannabe-mobster owner, his long-suffering wife, his spoiled daughter, the gold-obsessed clerk, or the inscrutable security guard? Or possibly it was the owner’s hired muscle nicknamed the Disposer…who just may dispose of Jamie and Maizy! One thing is for sure: the killer will stop at nothing to reclaim those diamonds, and if she isn’t careful, Jamie could just be the next target in the way!
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So funny! If you like laugh-out-loud, Kelly Rey is your gal!
Another fun & funny addition to this series. I love the new character Grunt, I hope he sticks around. Look forward to reading the next book
Death by Diamonds earns 4+/5 Sparkling Stones…Entertaining with a Edge!
“Diamonds are [not always] a girl’s best friend.” Maizy, Jamie’s friend, sidekick, and her landlord/romance partner’s niece shakes her awake, excited about a new murder to investigate. What? Maizy, in her late-teens, clad-in-black, and with several body piercings, spotted a hooded figure running away from a body on the back porch. The woman whispered her uncle’s name, Curt, just before she expired, but murder? Well, the blood pooling beneath her head could be a forensic clue. Not known to miss a pocket-picking opportunity, she rifles through the victim’s pockets to discover a bag of loose diamonds. Rousing her Uncle Curt from the shower, he recognizes the woman as Amber Freeling, someone he dated a couple of times ten years ago. The police arrive, but fortunately they leave a few things behind unexplored…the victim’s purse and car. The trio starts their own investigation revealing shady pawnshops, questionable husband, and so many that seem set on retrieving the diamonds!
Kelly Rey penned an entertaining Jamie Winters’s book with a bit of a delightful edge in tone and talk of Jamie’s inner desires. Starting with book six comes with some disadvantages, but soon personalities and connections became clearer. Using a first-person narrative, giving me a vicarious role through Jamie’s “I” perspective, Kelly’s easy-to-read style, organized in concise chapters, is well-written with descriptive language and expressive dialogue to illustrate the setting, characters, and personalities to keep one’s interest. This page turner drama was clever, complex with all sorts of suspects, misdirection, shady characters, secrets, perilous predicaments, and a satisfying surprise at the end, however, I enjoy my cozies with a bit more realism. I personally enjoy a bit more law enforcement availability, although the three amateurs do very well on there own. Maizy, an “acquired taste,” was too willing to cross “legality” lines and a bit overboard for my tastes, but Jamie did seem to balance her out, and Jamie and Curt are navigating a pleasant relationship. The level of humor added a wonderful facet to the story and the quirky characters were just plain fun. Very enjoyable!
This is the first book I’ve read by this author and it won’t be the last. A dead body and a bag of diamonds are the headliners for this book in this series, with great characters that interact wonderfully and laugh-out-loud moments that will turn heads if anyone else is around you while you’re reading. This book made me go back and purchase the ones before it, that’s how entertaining and likable it is! Enough twists and turns to keep you guessing, and just when you think you’ve solved it, BAM, you are taken in another direction! I believe you will completely happy and entertained by this mystery which is a relatively quick and totally satisfying cozy mystery book. I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and am delighted to provide my unsolicited, honest opinion.
In Death by Diamonds Jamie is always at least one step behind Maizy! (No one could keep up with that teen!) I was well entertained by the zany cast of suspects in this well plotted mystery that has so many suspects, motives and more.
I loved this book! Filled with quirky fun characters! A really fun read that will keep you guessing! I received an ARC from the publisher for purposes of an unbiased review.