Review: Be careful where you dig, you could start a gold rush.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 28, 2014
Longer days, warmer days, perfect for a little easy reading from a favorite writer. I’m catching up with Marja McGraw, whose books display "a little humor, a little romance, a little murder.” But my favorite quote is from the bio on her web site: “I have a fairly well-rounded life education. That's a polite way of saying life was tough, but I was tougher.”I just read AWKWARD MOMENTS, the latest book in Marja McGraw's BOGEY MAN MYSTE It’s a classic cozy.There’s no blood spatter, no steamy sex, a distinctive setting, a family of amateur sleuths, a limited number of suspects, plus a few secrets and motives for murder. Bouncing around in the story are a couple of golden Labrador Retrievers named Sherlock and Watson. The epigraph, credited to Unknown, kicks off the story: “Awkward Moments/When you're digging a hole to bury a body/And you find another body already buried there.”Pamela and Chris Cross own a 1940s themed restaurant in Los Angeles. Chris looks like Humphrey Bogart and has adopted Bogey's walk and talk. He’s known around town as the Bogey Man. which is very good for business and fun for the reader. Along with Pam’s eight-year-old son Mikey, also known as Ace, they are on vacation in the village of Serenity, Nevada.They’re staying in an old farmhouse, and when Mikey digs a hole to bury a dead bird he digs so deep he uncovers a skeleton, and underneath the bones a couple of small pouches.The skeleton is identified by the police chief, who has a long memory, and the pouches are opened.One bag contains a handwritten will dated 1904. The other bag is full of gold coins, and as the whole town shows up to dig for gold, a fresh body turns up in the hole. Mikey may be eight years old but as a self-appointed sleuth-in-training he plays his part in solving this case. The ending is upbeat. As the Bard himself said, “All’s well that ends well.”