Murder Creek

Eve Sawyer is a journalism student, but she also has these heightened senses which she cannot ignore nad they help in some situations, but they also won’t leave her alone and settle when they start up and when she is minding her own business and driving home when she drives over a bridge with a sign saying “Murder Creek” and she gets a prickling sensation in her spine and the almost overwhelming need to look down at the creek and know what happened there and this feeling of agitation and restlessness didn’t leave until she had gotten home and looked up the name and in doing so finds out about two significant events, a murder of a group of men on the banks in the 1800’s and a missing girl, Lucy Walken from twenty years ago. When Eve gets to college the next day, she immediately goes to see her professor to ask for him to give her an incomplete grade so that she can go and investigate what happened at Murder Creek over the summer break, he reluctantly agrees and so when shehas finished with everything else to complete her other classes, she heads to Murder Creek and finds a motel to stay in while also finding out that there will be a funeral that weekend and if she wants to stay in the motel longer, she will have to let the owner know in advance.

When she gets settled, she calls the contact her professor had said may help her with the investigation, so they agree to meet at the local diner and they talk about what she is in town for over dinner, he agrees to help her and to start, will take her to Murder Creek itself. That night Eve can’t sleep because of the horrific dreams she has of the two cases, but nevertheless, she is up and ready when her guide shows up, when they get there, the scene is peaceful, the complete opposite of the images which assault her senses, but when she goes to where Lacy’s bloody scarf was found, she only got the prickling sensation, but thankfully, no more images and when Eve returns to her room, she goes over her notes and makes a list of what she needs to find out. She looks at the phone book and finds the listings for Walken’s, she calls the two she finds and arranges to meet one the next morning, but the other just tells her she can’t be of any help. Later on, Eve is taken to see the sheriff as a courtesy to tell him what she is doing there and to ask him what he knows, but he is quite closed off and won’t help them, but Eve has another way to get the information she wants and asks to go to the newspapers main office and places an ad in for anyone to call her if they have any information.

As Eve digs deeper into the case and learns more about Lacey, she realises that this beautiful girl was more than meets the eye and whatever happened to her doesn’t quite match up and when she starts talking to people, something still doesn’t seem to add up, but it seems that the key detail is still missing and she worries that she may never know what it is when it turns out that the funeral is for one of the towns main benefactors.

Will Eve be able to uncover the truth about what happened to Lacey, or will the dead ends and lost leads conspire against her? This is a mystery to get your teeth into and will keep you guessing until the very end.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I loved the writing style and how the author described her surroundings; I could really picture what she was seeing. The author got the name for this book from a place she’s personally been to, which made this book all the more personal; that added to the fact I could relate to her when she mentioned having a morbid curiosity about crime made me feel all the more closer to the book and the author which I think is so important. This was a really easy read and I’m excited to read more from the author.

3 ½ Stars

Murder Creek is the first book in the Eve Sawyer Mystery Series by Jane Suen. This book is a great little cozy mystery.
Eve Sawyer is a college journalism student with a talent for sniffing out a good story. So when she is driving home one day, she happens upon Murder Creek and she just knows there’s an intriguing story behind the name. With a little research, Eve discovers all the gruesome historical details that earned it that name. But also uncovers a 20 year old missing persons case which really sparks her interest. So she sets off to try and discover what happened all those years ago. Uncovering long-held secrets, will she finally find the body and give the family some much needed closure? Or will she become a statistic herself?
A story of secrets, betrayal, small town drama, and an intriguing investigation.
Looking forward to seeing what Eve gets up to in book #2.

Thank you, Jane Suen!

Murder Creek grabs the readers attention. How many times have you driven by a sign on the road and wonder why it was named that way. For Eve it isn’t a matter of wondering, it’s a matter of finding out what happened. When Eve drives by a sign, Murder Creek, she starts wondering and then finds out what happened. She sets out on a mission to find the truth. I couldn’t put down this novel. I read it in one day and it just pulled me in.

This short novel has an interesting premise and offers a quick read with clean, simple writing. Perhaps as an introduction to the genre for young readers, this would be a good choice. There is no violence, sex, or adult language. The writing is simple, it’s short, and it’s easy to follow. The book is not marketed that way, but for that kind of audience, it would be fine.

For a more mature mystery reader, the book leaves me wanting more. The characters could have been developed more, there could have been some romance or suspense, the plot points could have been more intricate and better explained, the story details could have been fleshed out more, and the ending could have been more plausible and dramatic. It’s a little disappointing that this book could have been significantly better. As written, it’s a short, easy read with an engaging story.

Author Jane Suen tells us that the story was inspired by a road sign in Alabama reading: “Murder Creek.” From that, she spins out a story about a college student (Eve), who sees that same highway sign and becomes entranced by how Murder Creek got its name and begins digging into a 20-year-old missing persons case. Eve’s motivation to be obsessed with the missing person (Lacey Walken) is never really explained. But, she convinces her college professor to let her write a term paper on this case, so she spends a few weeks trying to solve a case that nobody else had manage over the past 20 years.

The basic story has some appeal. Lacey was the prettiest girl in the local high school, but suddenly had a blow-up with her mother, dropped out of school, and worked at the local pizza parlor. Then, one night, she went missing. The Sheriff found her scarf, with her blood on it, on a tree out near Murder Creek. She was never found. As the start for a book, this has potential. There is a story here, but Ms. Suen speeds through it like it’s a one-hour television drama where everything has to fit the 44 minutes of air time, so things have to be rushed to conclusion. Eve, our amateur sleuth, wants to know what happened. But, how can she uncover the truth about the biggest local unsolved crime/mystery in the last generation? The answer is that she should not be able to, but the pieces fall into her lap without much effort. It’s not a very satisfying narrative, with far too many unasked questions and plot holes.

The writing is at times well-detailed, but at other times very basic. There are many very short chapters where nothing happens, which seems like filler to try to make what is really a novella into a novel. The descriptions of Lacey’s many trips to the local diner don’t make up for a lack of depth in the characters or a lack of detail in the plot. Characters who have been keeping secrets for 20 years suddenly open up to Eve (whom they just met), while other characters are complete dead ends and red herrings. Eve has a source of information who is seemingly attracted to her and fully willing to help, but she doesn’t fully tap that obvious resource. She finds the critical clue (the existence of which is extraordinarily implausible) with the aid of a character who should be keeping secrets, not helpfully providing the old records. In the end, the plot contains some very large logical holes and the surprise ending is less surprising and less believable than it could have been. We can hope that Ms. Suen spends a little more time developing the story for her next book, because the writing ability is certainly there.

Great mystery

A somewhat simple straightforward mystery and quick read.