Reviewed By Liz

I am envious of Brodie Farrell’s job as a finder of things – new things, lost things, any thing someone wants. Her business is called “Looking for Something?” and is a great plot device with which to start off a mystery. In this particular book, Brodie does some house hunting for a fussy musician and manages to locate the ideal house – with the unfortunate bonus of a body buried in the yard.

The things I liked best about this book are some lovely little turns of phrase used by the author. In a few words she is able to capture a character or a feeling so aptly and insightfully that they are instantly recognizable to the reader. Who doesn’t know someone who could be described with the words “regards anything but a locked door as an open invitation.” I won’t drop names, but I’m related to that woman.

What struck me as odd about this book were the characters. They didn’t seem to me to mesh properly together. Brodie is described as a very attractive woman and is pursued by several men in the book in what seems almost like an unpopular teen’s fantasy of good looks and adoration. Her young daughter, on the other hand, is practically an afterthought. Paddy spends most of her time with the upstairs neighbor while her mother pursues her detection and matters of the heart. She appears only briefly and is never her mother’s main concern. You are left with the feeling that the characters haven’t been fully fleshed out.

Yes, I guessed it. This is one of those books in which the reader guesses early on who the killer is and reads the book knowing what important questions the police have left unasked during the witness interviews, and which pieces of evidence will yield important clues for the characters if they would only bother to look them over properly. But the author does manage to put in a twist at the end and then wrap the solution up neatly. The quality of the writing is such that I will read more and hope the characters are better developed in other books.

Mystery Book Reviews by Reviewed By Liz.com ©2006