Review: Refreshing style, very breezy
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 1, 2014
I loved this book and will definitely buy the next in the series.Pros: Well defined characters, a decent mystery, and enough red herrings that I didn't know for sure who the killer was until near the end. The author was skilled at reminding the reader each time a secondary or tertiary character appeared what that character’s role was, which helped keep the abundant cast organized in my head.Cons: Occasionally there were several characters in a scene, and I lost track of who was talking and would have to backtrack. Some paragraphs were a little long, and a few times I caught myself skimming. It didn't happen very often, but often enough I feel obliged to mention it.Humor is a tough sell.  You never know if somebody else will share your sense of humor and make you laugh. Most of this book was tongue-in-cheek, so I’m not surprised that the 1- and 2-stars reviewers didn't get it.For me, the charm was in the style of writing. I won’t say that it’s metered like poetry, but I suspect the author read it aloud and adjusted words and syllables as needed to maintain rhythm. And because of that, it was wordy, sentences longer than they needed to be, words longer than necessary (although I never needed a dictionary to figure them out). The rhythm made it fun to read.If you like humor, give it a shot. I can’t promise you’ll be as enamored of--or as amused by--this book as I was, but it’s free.