Review: Crombie's out of his comfort zone...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 9, 2012
...and that's good news for fans of Julia Hughes's "Celtic Cousins" adventures. This is the third book in the series, and it may very well be the best of the lot.When a circus elephant goes missing on Detective Inspector Crombie's watch, he immediately thinks of Wren and Rhyllann, who have to his mind made a career out of being the collective bane of his existence. And his instincts are correct: the cousins HAVE been up to something--but when Crombie finds out what it is and why, he runs into resistance not only from his immediate superiors, but also from the corridors of power in Whitehall itself.Will Crombie take the easy way out, or will he "leave the reservation" in an effort to do the right thing? The answer may surprise you...At around 40,000 words, this is the shortest entry in the Celtic Cousins series, but Ms Hughes makes every word tell. She is an engaging storyteller, and has a way of putting the reader right there in the scene with her characters via vivid sensory details--one can almost smell the fish and chips--and down-to-earth dialogue. I highly recommend AN EXPLOSIVE TIME (and its series mates).