Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496708571
Kensington Publishing
352 Pages
$7.19; $5.99 Amazon
November 28, 2017
⭐⭐⭐
Moving from Minnesota to Arizona was a big change for Sophie "Phee" Kimball. She's much closer to her mother's retirement community now - which can drive her a little crazy, but at least her mom, Harriet, has her book club and her chiweenie dog, Streetman, to keep her company. And now there's even more activity, with Aunt Ina's upcoming wedding. The seventy-four-year-old bride has roped Phee into working on the tent, the pastries, and even her headpiece in preparation for the ceremony. But it's Harriet who really gets demanding when a dead body turns up yards from her front door.
Aunt Ina's fiancé is acquainted with the victim - a local millionaire restaurateur murdered at the golf course. Working for a private investigator, Phee is drawn into the case - not just professionally but personally, since Harriet is in a panic about her safety. With a killer on the loose, Phee vows to figure out the plot - that is, if her side job as a wedding planner doesn't kill her first...
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Sophie "Phee" Kimball moved from Mankato, Minnesota's dreadful winters to sunny Arizona to work for a private investigator she's known for years. In fact, when he was a police officer, she worked with him in the department, and he coaxed her to take a year off and see if she liked it enough to stay.
Her life is settling in nicely when she finds out her 74-year-old aunt Ina is getting married and needs her help. Ina's aflutter with the wedding and wants Phee to help with the pastries. But it doesn't end there. Then she's roped into one more thing, and one more...
Her boss Nate has taken the case of a dead golfer that the police have deemed suspicious, and Phee discovers that Ina's fiancé Louis knew the man. Then the chef who's catering the meal is murdered, and Phee stumbles across the body. While that should be the end of it, it isn't. When an item belonging to the chef turns up in Louis's garage and Louis goes missing, her aunt becomes frantic, the police are interested, her mother's getting hysterical, and all Phee wants to do is get sleep...
I read the first in the series and really liked it, even with Harriet being an overbearing mother. But this second one, while amusing in the beginning, has begun to turn sour in the middle of the book. Phee has no backbone. None at all.
She's roped into helping with the wedding preparations, even though she doesn't want to - it begins as merely helping with the pastries and before she knows it everyone is coming to her to make decisions, because Ina is "just too unsettled" to do it herself. What I get out of it is the fact her aunt wants to get married, has an idea of what she wants, but doesn't want to do anything to get there.
Phee won't tell anyone 'no'. When her mother says jump, she asks 'how high?' When her mother's friends call for help, she gives up her own private time to do as they ask. When it got to the point that Aunt Ina woke her at 3 am and demanded she show up at Louis's home (regardless of the reason it could have been done after 10 pm and before midnight) - I was completely pissed. Let someone - anyone - try that with me and see how far it goes. She should have told her that she had a job and needed sleep, and wasn't going to do it. She also should have told her that to take her mind off of Louis being gone she could take over planning her own wedding. But she didn't.
I honestly had to put the book down after this. You read to enjoy, to relax - and it's difficult to relax when you're disgusted with the characters in a book. I didn't even care who the murderer was at this point; I just wanted to see Harriet and Ina falling off a cliff. Seriously. I needed time to decide if I wanted to continue with this book, because I absolutely detest women who have no backbone.
I was so perturbed I just wanted the book to end. I also wanted Phee to go back home and get away from her family. You've heard of mama's boys? Well, Phee is a mama's girl. And that's not a good thing. Not only when her mother and aunt tell her to do stuff, but her mother's friends, she does them - even when she has plans of her own. How spineless is this woman? Also, how do all these women have Phee's number - they're not relatives! - and why are they calling her for problems? They should be calling Ina, not expecting Phee to be their personal emissary and wedding planner. Are they all like Harriet, expecting Phee to do things for them with no return?
Truthfully, I can't stand her mother nor her aunt. What kind of people are they that they're treating Phee like she's a slave? What nice things have they done for her? As a matter of fact, what have Harriet's friends ever done for Phee that's nice? What does Phee's mother do that shows she loves Phee? Nothing. She treats her like unpaid help. Is this supposed to be hilarious?
After writing down these thoughts, I decided to let the comments stand (I've never been shy about the truth) and finish the book. I will say that while I don't like any of these obnoxious people - who, I believe, are supposed to be hilarious as "old people" - I am glad I finished it. Once we got to the day of the wedding the real plot finally picked up. I say 'real' because most of the plot centered on Ina's wedding that she wasn't doing anything for and Phee having to take care of it because obviously, these people are all afraid of Ina going off the deep end and have no problem pushing everything onto her niece. This is not humorous, it only shows that these women are not people you'd want to spend any time with for fear they'd have you walking their dogs or taking out their trash. Luckily, I know older people who are a real delight to be around; they can handle problems on their own.
Anyway, once we got to the gist of the story - the wedding - things started to come together and add up. Phee and her boss Nate are lucky enough to be around when the truth comes out, and even though the wedding turns out to be a disaster (you'll see if you haven't read the book; it's another episode that's supposed to be funny but really isn't) it all ends well and Phee can get back to her life and relax for awhile.
All in all, it wasn't a bad story and I will probably read the next just to see if Phee ever stands up to her mother or remains an invertebrate. A decent story (if frustrating) that can be read in an evening.
https://www.amazon.com/Ditched-Murder-Sophie-Kimball-Mystery/dp/1496708571/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2150282052
More on J. C. Eaton's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/j-c-eaton/
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