Author: Sybil Johnson
Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781940976525
Henery Press
270 Pages
$31.95; $4.99 Amazon
November 11, 2014
⭐⭐⭐
A dead body in her garden and a homicide detective on her doorstep. Computer programmer and tole painting enthusiast Aurora (Rory) Anderson doesn't envision finding either when she steps outside to investigate the frenzied yipping come from from her own backyard.
After all, she lives in Vista Beach, a quiet California beach community where violent crime is rare and murder even rarer.
Suspicion falls on Rory when the body buried in her flowerbed turns out to be someone she knows -- her tole painting teacher, Hester Bouquet. Just two weeks before, Rory attended one of Hester's weekend seminars, an unpleasant experience she vowed never to repeat.
As evidence piles up against Rory, she embarks on a quest to identify the killer and clear her name. Can Rory unearth the truth before she encounters her own brush with death?
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Rory Anderson wakes up one morning to the neighbor's dog barking in her backyard. After returning the dog, she goes to see what is the problem...and finds a finger sticking up out of her garden. After calling the police, she sees more of the body and discovers who the dead woman is. Hester Bouquet, her tole painting teacher. But it looks as if all the evidence points to Rory as the killer, and the chief of police is going to charge her even if she's not guilty, so she needs to find a killer fast.
But when a second body is discovered, the rush is on, because they're getting close to charging her, and it doesn't look pretty...
This is the first book in the series, and I do realize that it is an older book, but I do like to read them because they're not filled with author political views. That drives me crazy, unfortunately. But also unfortunately, this book just couldn't keep me interested. The only likeable character in the book is Rory. She's also the only one we know anything about. She's a computer programmer but never spends time doing anything, so I imagine she must have a healthy bank account.
There were so many questions -- what kind of a town does she live in that her neighbors would shy away from her when she had nothing to do with the past? Pretty overly-righteous and overly judgmental people, if you ask me. I also had to wonder at the chief, who was blaming a small toddler for something she had nothing to do with so many years ago. Just sayin'
Detective Green seemed off, too. He started out okay, but then just seemed to be a shell of a man going about his day and not even caring -- very unemotional. I realize cops have to be impartial, but this guy was almost robotic. Her mother didn't seem to care about anything that was happening to her daughter, either.
I knew the murderer the minute that person stepped on the page. It wasn't hard to decipher, but I did look toward the end to see the reason why and how the climax was going to come about (I just couldn't finish this book; sorry; so I did move forward). At any rate, the ending was fine, and there was some resolution to a couple of things, but I will read the next in the series to see if it improves.
More on Sybil Johnson's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/j/sybil-johnson/
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