Angie
Written on Nov 8, 2014
Sadly, Tagged for Death was not the book I was hoping for. That's not to say it was bad, but it was just not for me. Sarah Winston is recently divorced, and her ex-husband is the police chief. She's receiving threatening sounding phone calls, but refuses to go to the police for that very reason. Sarah is also a garage sale enthusiast (what initially drew me to this series) and a volunteer at a thrift store. She has several bags of clothing to sort through when she finds a bloody shirt and uniform. The shirt is her ex's and the uniform belongs to the woman he cheated with who has disappeared. Needless to say, Sarah is unwillingly involved in a possible murder case.
The first thing I noticed about Tagged for Death was that it a more gloomy tone than other Cozies I've read. I don't mind darker stories, but this one just depressing and no fun to read. Sarah's marriage fell apart, her husband is having a baby with a much younger woman, she doesn't have many friends, and now she's the center of a murder investigation. There was nothing light or funny and that really dragged the story down for me. Not that murder is a happy topic, but I figured her passion for garage sells would add something quirky, but it didn't.
Tagged for Death was also more military focused than I expected, and I didn't really enjoy this aspect at all. Sarah's husband was in the air force, as was the woman he cheated with. The thrift store Sarah works at is also on base, so she spends a lot of time there. She also talks about the military a lot, and I just didn't care. I wanted to know more about her and her interests, i.e. garage sales! She does visit some, but she doesn't use that knowledge to help her solve the case at all. It was just the starting point at getting involved.
There were two more things that really bothered me about Tagged for Death, because they made no sense. The first is that the police force are constantly harassing Sarah under some guise of looking out for their own. It's not like she did anything wrong; it was her husband who cheated, and as far as I could tell, he had no negative or hostile feelings toward her. His co-workers just make things up to write her tickets for, and generally bother her. The second was directly linked to the murder. Sarah finds some human bones, including a skull, behind the thrift store and they think it might be the missing woman. However, the bones were perfectly clean and she had only been missing for a day. Did no one find that suspicious? It's obvious the bones had been planted, but whatever.
In the end, Tagged for Death didn't fully work out for me. Military books rarely, if ever, hold my interest, and this one actually snuck up on me. The few scenes of the garage sales were interesting, since Sarah was truly into them, and I did learn a few things. I also wish the tone hadn't been so dreary, since it made the mystery kind of a bummer. There were some great twists though, which I never saw coming.
Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.