Monday, April 11, 2022

Massage & Murder (A Cozy Spa Mystery Book 1)

Author:    Jenn Cowan
Genre:     Mystery

Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #    9781985872226
CreateSpace Publishing
186 Pages
$10.00; $.99 Amazon
February 28, 2018

⭐⭐⭐


I'm a licensed massage therapist.
A professional.
A healer,
Not a killer.

When a client ends up dead on my massage table, I become the number one suspect.
I have Means.
Motive.
Opportunity.

But I didn't kill her.
The clock is ticking, someone is stalking me, I have to find out who before I end up in jail or worse...dead.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Autumn is a massage therapist in a run-down salon, but she loves her job.  That is, until her ex-best friend is found dead on her massage table.  Now, the lead suspect -- her ex-boyfriend and also the father of her ex-best friend's daughter, thinks she may have murdered the woman.  With motive, means, and opportunity, she knows she's not guilty.  But in order to find out who killed April, Autumn may just have to use herself as bait...

I really wanted to like this story, but I have a hard time with first person, present tense,  As in: "I am going to the store now."  Who cares?  This is difficult enough to pull off in a book, but it just feels off if you can't...and it could be better.

Maybe if the plot were pulled together better, or the facts were written as a story, it would have been better.  But I just didn't enjoy this as much as I should have.  Also, there should have been an editor somewhere along the line.  Words were used that shouldn't have been, as using "too" instead of "to".  This was done quite a bit.  And Travis's hair color changed in the middle of the book -- he 'ran his hand through his blond hair.'  Say what?  I thought he was a redhead?  Ah, well...

I also didn't like the fact that Travis really thought Autumn could be guilty.  For someone who has feelings for her, this seemed wrong.  If they were married, would he still believe her capable of murder?  If he would, then she should run as fast as she can in the other direction.  Just sayin'...

But it was the ending that got me.  I really detest cliff hangers, and even though this left us just a bit of a one, it was still a cliff hanger.  It's like holding the reader hostage: you need to read the next book to find out what happens next!  Nope.  I don't like it one bit.  And isn't fifteen years a long time to be rehashing high school grudges?  Move on, people!

Other than that, the story line was okay, and I may or may not read the next in the series.  An alright read that is a short cozy and quick to read.



More on Jenn Cowan's Books:    https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/jenn-cowan/

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