FILM OPTION SOLD TO MISTY MOUNTAIN PRODUCTIONS:Book #1 in The Claudia Hershey Mystery Series: A Claudia Hershey mystery: A dead psychic. Heroin filtering into the town’s schools. A sullen ex-con with a beef of his own, and a legislator with secrets to protect. Not what homicide detective Claudia Hershey expected when she moved to Indian Run, a smudge on Florida’s map. But there’s no turning back … turning back when the killer makes things personal.
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Claudia Hershey is a no-nonsense detective that has moved to rural Florida to raise her teenage daughter. Her boss thought she was Claude, not Claudia, and that is just the start of her problems with untrained cops and an honest to goodness murder. Not any murder, but a savage murder with tainted evidence.
The characters are believable and the feature of mediums living in the town adds a bit extra. And no, the mediums are just part of the story, not the whole story. Claudia is overworked, disrespected by her co -workers and Robin, her daughter, is failing at school and now a gruesome murder.The collecting of evidence makes it solid police procedural along with the exhausting interviewing and looking for clues.
A second murder enhances the fear level as does the way the murdered person was killed and tiny details like broken fingers become important. The guilty until innocent action of some cops impedes the case as does the lack of Claudia’s power as her boss dismisses her theories.
The interaction between mom and daughter was so real and even funny at times…kids push buttons and moms react, even a fine cop can just lose it when her daughter lies.
You meet the residence of this town willing to lie about the little things that can make or break a case. The party, the guests, the affairs and see the big money guys think they can threaten their way out of questions.
My only problem was I knew the killer too soon as the clues added up too quickly, clues that Claudia should have picked up on and yet Claudia found evidence of other crimes like hidden drugs and I had no idea. But the clues on the killer were too apparent and needed to be less obvious.
I give this 3.5 stars
I found the characters to be real and relatable. I like the authors writing style as a scene is set and action rolling quickly. I’m already ready for book #2 in this characters series.
I received a complimentary ebook and at perfect timing around Halloween. I enjoyed reading it, but figured out who the killer was very early on. I really liked Claudia, the detective. Will look for further books in this series to read.
Detective Claudia Hershey and her 13-year-old daughter are recent transplants to Indian Run, a small Florida town where there is very little real crime… which is exactly what she wanted.
But the universe has a surprise in store for her. She’s always disliked Halloween and she likes it no better now, now that a medium has been murdered on her most un-favorite night. The woman’s face is gone.
It takes a lot of good police work to track down her clients and try to figure out if one of them had a grudge .. or was this a robbery … or a random kill be someone unhinged?
She’s fighting the good-old-boys network as the only female cop … and the only one with experience dealing with homicides. Even her boss is not too happy … he claims she’s trying to make him and the department look bad.
But before she makes any inroads into this vicious murder, another medium is killed in exactly the same way … and the body count does not end there.
It’s when this serial killer makes things personal that the veteran homicide detective decides she will need to do whatever it takes to bring this animal down.
Claudia is a great series character … she’s tough, thorough, and wants to see justice dished out. She’s also a single mom .. and that comes with its own problems. There are plenty of suspects and just to make things really interesting, most of them were in costume for the holiday.
Due to the author’s background and her diligent research, this story has much credibility. This is a well written, action-packed page turner. I look forward to following this series and going along with Claudia on her next adventures.
Many thanks to the author for this digital crime fiction. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.