Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496712103
Kensington Publishing
291
$7.99; $5.99 Amazon
November 28, 2017
⭐⭐
Leaving behind a failed marriage, New Yorker Annie "Halsey" Hall is ready to begin the next phase of her life in coastal Southern California. From the moment she arrives at her new digs on cozy Rose Avenue, she looks forward to joining the neighborhood ladies for their weekly Wine Club gathering. With only a rambunctious yellow lab puppy to keep her company, Halsey could really use a confidant - and a glass or two of her favorite white wine...
Unfortunately, she finds nothing but red at the Wine Club meeting - and judging by the dead woman lying face down in the backyard, it's not spilled Merlot. Halsey accidentally stumbled into the wrong address at the wrong time, and with suspicions about her past on the rise, she must prove that she isn't a killer. Enlisting the eclectic talents of the Wine Club ladies, Halsey searches for the true criminal at large. But separating friends from foes isn't easy on Rose Avenue, and as she racks up a suspect list, Halsey can't shake the feeling that someone in her inner circle has a taste for murder...
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Annie "Halsey" Hall has just made major changes in her life: she's left her husband behind in New York and packed up her vehicle with her belongings and her lab Bardot for sunny California. She's happy (mostly) to be starting a new life.
But when she accidentally walks in a home and finds a dead body in the back yard, the police are watching her very closely because they think she's a killer. Now she's hoping that her hostile neighbor will leave her alone and her new friends will help her figure out who killed Rosa so she can start her life, not wind up in jail before it begins...
Okay, I should have known when the tone of the book was set almost immediately - the fact that 'Halsey' wanted to move in on a Wednesday so she could get started with her drinking in her new wine club. If this had been stated on the blurb, I would have passed the book on by.
Now, there's nothing wrong with a glass or two of wine, and I know many people drink. But these women have made a job of it. They drink. A lot. Yet for some weird reason, they have no health problems. They don't have hangovers (except in a minor reference), no slurred speech, etc. I kept waiting for one of the older women to show loss of brain function or tell us that she needed a liver transplant. Geez, have a glass of water or iced tea once in a while. I also didn't much care for the fact that Halsey had no problem spending money on booze but wouldn't shell out for a few bags of candy for kids on Halloween. I guess she has her priorities.
Also, who just walks into a home with an open door if you’re not sure you have the right address? What will you say if you encounter some guy sitting on the sofa in his underwear, or a couple of kids playing on the floor? What will you say when they scream that a stranger is in the home? (Especially if you're holding a couple of bottles of wine). Stay outside, put the bottles down and check the address. What a nimrod. No wonder the cops are suspicious.
Then, the police are suspecting her after only a few hours of being there (again, she moved here so she could have drinking buddies and hasn't even really moved in) of killing someone? A quick check on her background - which could be done in a matter of hours - would show that she didn’t have time to kill anyone, didn’t know the woman, had no motive. Move on, officers. Find the real killer.
I didn’t like any of the women. All they did was drink. Just. Drink. We never got to know them as people. None of them seemed to have anything in common except drinking; there didn't seem to be any camaraderie at all, no connection. Surely there could have been a better plot line than women who like to sit around and get drunk. Where is it? Because it wasn't in this book. Two stars for the writing, but I won't be continuing the series.
https://www.amazon.com/Full-Bodied-Murder-Avenue-Mystery/dp/1496712102/ref
https://www.amazon.com/Full-Bodied-Murder-Avenue-Mystery/dp/1496712102/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2138736635
More on Christine E. Blum's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/christine-e-blum/
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