Thursday, August 8, 2019

Grounds for Remorse (A Tallie Graver Mystery #2)

Author:  Misty Simon
Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781496712233
Kensington Mystery
281 Pages
$6.47; $6.15 Amazon
May 29, 2018

⭐⭐⭐⭐


Best friends Tallie Graver and Gina Laudermilch both seem to spend a lot of time around urns.  For Tallie, they're part and parcel of the family business, Graver's Funeral Home.  Even though she's traded ashes for dusting with her own cleaning business, she still works part-time for her folks and lives above the funeral parlor.  For Gina, they're the vessels that contain her heavenly brew at her coffee shop, Bean There, Done That.  And both women are learning that owning a business can mkae finding time for romance challenging.

But when Gina's new beau turns out to have a wife, who barges into the coffee shop to take him home, she can't contain her bitterness and loudly threatens to poison his cup or boil him in a vat of coffee.  So when Mr. Wrong turns up dead at the bottom of a staircase inside Gina's locked home, she finds herself at the top of the police's suspect list.  Tallie needs to sweep in to save her friend.  But she'll need to watch her step, or she may go from being a funeral home employee to becoming their next client...

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Tallie Graver lives above her family's funeral home and works there part-time while also running her own cleaning service.  Today though, she's helping at her friend Gina's coffee shop across the street while Gina is getting ready to go on a date.  Tallie knows that Gina's new boyfriend Craig Johnson is attractive enough and attentive enough, but she still feels there's something "off" about him.  Gina's mother Shirley feels the same way, but neither are mentioning it.

Gina seems all happy smiles when she talks with Craig, but that happiness is short-lived.  A woman comes in screaming and attacks Gina for seeing her husband - who happens to be Craig.  Gina, who had no idea, starts screaming herself and making threats toward Craig.  After he leaves with his wife, Gina is rightfully incensed.

Tallie's boyfriend Max is also visiting from D.C., which is three hours away.  They have ten whole days together, and Tallie's happy as a clam.  But that doesn't last long when she tells him to meet her at Gina's, and he does - after he's had a vase of flowers thrown at him and slugged in the jaw.  It turns out Craig just isn't going to give up, regardless of Gina never wanting to see him again.

But she does...at the bottom of her stairwell, dead.  And while Tallie is told in no uncertain terms to leave it alone, she's not going to, especially when Gina is suspect number one, and the widow is determined to see her jailed.  Now Tallie's out to find a killer, but it's not easy when it turns out Craig had more than one secret...so which one got him killed and by whom?

First, I have to say this (and get the negative stuff out of the way):  I'll never understand why women go after the 'other woman' instead of their cheating husbands.  He's the one who's married.  He's the one who disrespected his wife and his vows.  But yet they attack the girlfriend without even finding out if she knew he was married.  Why aren't they blaming their rotten husbands?  Just sayin'

There were a couple of errors in the book such as using the word 'collaborate' instead of 'corroborate' - collaborate means to work with, while corroborate means to verify.  Any good editor should have been able to correct these before it went to print.  However, I didn't allow it to spoil my enjoyment at all, since I knew what was meant.  (Spellcheck wouldn't work since they're both words, but an editor should have known better).

I also get that Gina's in trouble, but Tallie hasn't seen Max in three weeks, and she pretty much foists him off on anyone so that she can try to find a killer.  Max is a pretty nice guy and understands Tallie's need to help Gina, but he winds up spending practically his entire vacation working and Tallie never even brings it up or makes it up to him.  She doesn't even think that 'hey, Max is on vacation so why am I making him work instead of enjoying it?' and Max's response is he's still spending time with Tallie, so it's okay.  No, it's not.  He'll need a vacation when he goes back home to get over this one.

But I did like the fact that Burton isn't the 'evil nemesis' he was in the first book.  He's beginning to allow Tallie a little more room, and she, in turn, is keeping him in the loop with what information she uncovers.  (I really, really, hate the 'evil nemesis' that seems prevalent in a lot of books - it detracts from the story and adds absolutely nothing).  We see a lot of transformation in the story from several different characters, and it opens things up to new beginnings, which will be interesting in future books.

While there isn't a lot of intrigue, there is an interesting plot, and I enjoyed following Tallie from person to person, gleaning what information she can.  Every encounter she has she thinks about what she can ask that person to help prove Gina innocent.  Tallie has a devious mind.  It's rather fun to watch her go about it.

When the ending comes and the killer is revealed, it's a motive as old as time, but the story was done well, and while it started out slow I stuck with it and it became more absorbing as I read.  I'm glad I didn't stop reading, because the ending was worth it and I look forward to the next in the series.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Grounds-Remorse-Tallie-Graver-Mystery/dp/1496712234/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2929465502

More on Misty Simon's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/misty-simon/

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