Review: Middle of the road
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 3, 2012
Libby Hargrove's home is undergoing renovations, so for the time being she is living out of a hotel. This turns out to be a fortuitous event for the detective, as many mysteries are about to unravel right before her eyes. The hotel seems to be cursed, as a tragic incident has given rise to ghost stories in the past. In the present, more tangible disturbances like a disappearance and murder lead Libby to snoop about again.The story begins slowly, easing readers into Libby's current situation and having her meet the occupants and workers of the hotel. A lot of characters are introduced or mentioned in early chapters. It can be confusing to keep them all straight. I feel that the high number of characters leads to many of them having little or no development. Given the setting, it makes sense that there are lots of people around, but not all of them need a role in the story. The story is dialogue heavy, and some tidbits are, of course, more interesting than others. Having lots of characters talking about different things makes it hard to sort out relevant information. The writing was serviceable, being of a plain and simple style. Typos and errors were minimal. Many of the plot threads starting out interesting, but the overall resolution left something to be desired. Overall, I enjoyed this story less than the previous entry into the series.