Quirky Cat
Gene Desrochers' Boise Montague series continues in Sweet Paradise. Don't worry; if you're like me and you haven't read the first novel (Dark Paradise), you can easily jump in at this point and have no trouble following along.
Boise Montague runs a private detective agency in the Caribbean. It's a bit of a change from his old life, but he's settling in well. Well, mostly. He's still sort of lacking one important part of his business, and you can probably guess what that is.
So when the opportunity strikes for Montague to investigate a case, he doesn't hesitate. Now he's knee-deep in a murder mystery, and things are getting more complicated (and dangerous) by the minute.
I think the thing I loved the most about Sweet Paradise is that while it is absolutely a cozy mystery – it's a cozy mystery with a darker side. It added a lot of tension to the narrative, but not so much where I felt like I had been thrown into the deep end of a thriller novel.
In other words, it was a nice balance that I really enjoyed. Boise Montague is an interesting character, and even without knowing all of his backstory (as mentioned above), I didn't have much trouble figuring out his motivation.
Or how much trouble he got into here, courtesy of Francine Bacon, his rich new client. Honestly, while the mystery itself was really fun (and a bit intense!), what I really fell in love with was the way Desrochers set the scene.
The way Desrochers described Montague's setting stole the show if you ask me. All of the descriptions and secondary characters brought this part of the Caribbean to life to me and made it so easy to picture all of the shenanigans that were happening.
Now I'm left hoping to find out what sort of adventure Montague will get into next because we all know he's not going to learn his lesson here.
Thanks to Acorn Publishing for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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