Alex Harris thinks finding a place to celebrate her one-year anniversary sounds like a good idea, but when her husband arrests her sister for murder she has some serious thoughts about staying married to the guy! Her sister Samantha is clearly keeping a secret and refuses to give the police an alibi, but when she asks Alex to help solve the crime and clear her name, Alex is only too happy to jump … jump in and prove her husband wrong. And then the police turn their attention to Samantha’s husband—another suspect with no alibi.
Could her sister or brother-in-law really have killed a local building inspector over his refusal to pass their new sunroom addition? Alex doesn’t think so and sets her sights on several others who had more than a good reason to nail the guy.
Something sinister is going on in this coastal New England town where the bodies seem to be piling up.
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One minute Alex Harris is trying to come up with a nice way to celebrate her first wedding anniversary, the next she is thinking about filing for divorce. What made her contemplate divorce you ask, her husband, John, when arrested Alex’s sister for murder. Alex believes she can not stay married to a man that would believe her sister was a murderer. Alex is all too ready to prove that her sister is innocent, so jumps into her own murder investigation no matter how John feels. Can Alex prove her sister’s innocence? Will she divorce John?
This is book 8 in the Alex Harris Mystery Series, but my first book. I had no problem reading this book as a stand-alone mystery. The characters are realistically complex with their interwoven relationships and their secrets as a lot of families have. The mystery was well written with a quick pace and several well-placed red herrings to keep the reader engaged and guessing. I look forward to reading more of this series.
I listened to the audio version of this book. Narrator Michelle Babb is a wonderful storyteller. She brings each of the character’s personality to life. You always know exactly which character is which because she uses great accents and diction. She has perfect pacing of the storytelling, she doesn’t rush, and she brings in just the right amount of comedic relief or emotional distress to the narration. I recommend listening to the audio version if you can.
I voluntarily listened to a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own and in no way have been influenced.
A well written and well thought out who dun it that I enjoyed reading to the very last page. Alex is a strong, confident ‘lady’ heroine who knows what she wants and goes after it, tenaciously solving murder mysteries. Lots of suspects and intrigues with colourful characters who all seem to have enough motive for killing the victim, Victor Sanjari. The humour within is almost British in its dryness, hope this isn’t an insult!!! A pleasurable read, Thanks Elaine Macko, I look forward to reading more of your fanciful stories.
Interesting mystery
Alex is running her own agency with her sister. That is when Alex’s husband tries to bring Alex’s sister for enquiry in connection with the murder of an inspector.
The fact was that Alex’s sister and the inspector had a huge fight the day before and then the inspector is killed.
The story progresses at a brisk pace as the mystery is woven perfectly and sprinkled with enough humour. The fact that Alex’s husband is the one who made the arrest adds to the complication of the story and it was engaging to read about that too. The characters – either the good or the bad – were all etched very well and the plot seemed realistic and believable. Overall enjoyed it.
Alex Harris is in the middle of discussing plans for her one year wedding anniversary when her sister is taken to the police station for questioning on the murder of a corrupt building inspector. The arresting detective is non other than said husband for whom Alex was planning a celebration…yep, her husband! While said homicide detective is relegated to sleeping on the couch, Alex begins her own investigation to clear her sister and solve the murder.
Interesting story that is dotted with snarky humor. Love the relationship between Alex and her grandmother. With so many suspects to choose from, I was pleasantly surprised by the identity of the killer. Great HEA.
This review is for the audio book.
I really enjoyed this book. I checked if I could get the rest of the books in the series but even though it is book eight this this the only book available (at the moment), so I will have to keep an eye out for more releases. I really enjoyed it, I liked the characters and thought they were well rounded and like able. The mystery was good with plenty of suspects, clues and red herrings, a real who done it that you can solve along with the main character and one I enjoyed greatly mainly because she did solve it by asking questions and not just guessed or when a gun was pulled on her. There was also a lot going besides the main murder and In fact she had three mysteries to clear up two deaths and a cheating husband, Well worth the seven hours of listening time which just flew by.
Alex is contemplating divorce because he husband has just walked in and taken her sister of for questioning In a murder investigation. Knowing her sister to be innocent she sets about to prove her husband wrong and then maybe she can let him back into there bedroom. But Alex’s husband can’t really think her sister would kill a man over failing her building inspection or because he won’t stop trying to put the moves on her? The dead man wasn’t well liked and the only person to have anything nice to say about him is his girlfriend. With so many suspects Alex will have a hard time clearing Sam’s name. He was kicking his own mother out of his house, his sister needs more money, his ex sister in law thought he has killed his own wife, he had some shady business dealing with an old college friend and what about the naughty photos of the current girlfriend. All these people had a much better reason to kill him than Sam. Alex just has to prove it but with Sam reluctant to provide an alibi to the police because she is scared her husband will find out that she doesn’t trust him, Alex might just to investigate her own family. Then someone else is attack and throws all her theory’s out the window. Can there both be related? Can Alex find out what is going on and find out once and for all if the dead man really did kill his wife.
Michelle Babb is great at bringing stories like these alive and making them so enjoyable like only she can do. I hope if there are more books in this series then the author choose Michelle to read them again.