New Math is Murder

by Jo-Ann Lamon Reccoppa

[Angie]

I'll admit that I was drawn to New Math is Murder based on the title and the use of kind of math in the description. I was hoping for a quick, fun mystery, but for the most part I was quite indifferent to it. Colleen is having some bad luck. Her husband just left her and they're preparing for divorce. She's broke and only has a part-time job at the local paper. Then while trying to shed a bit of extra weight, she falls over a body during her morning jog. At least she's not a suspect, although her boss has her covering the case and the killer really doesn't like that.

New Math is Murder was okay. It moved along at a good pace, so it's not like I ever had time to actually get bored. I just never got invested in the mystery. The dead body in question is Colleen's daughter's math teacher, so he's not short on enemies! Of course, someone close to him had to do it and I figured this out really early. It turns out that the most likely solution is the correct one. Although I didn't figure out the whole motive, just part of it.

Part of why I didn't connect with New Math is Murder was because of Colleen. I couldn't believe how dumb she was at times. Like when she lands her car in the bay, and can't figure out how to get out of the car before it sinks even though her windows are open. And then she gets a weird phone call and wishes she could find out who it was, even though she has caller I.D.! Not to mention, she has no idea how to attach files or even copy-paste when she works in journalism. Isn't that something she should know working in a computer-centric business?! I suspect some of this was done for humor, but it's a type of humor that doesn't click with me.

New Math is Murder wasn't the cozy for me. It simply didn't engage me and I solved the case way too early, so I was never surprised and didn't fall for any of those red herrings that Colleen seemed to pull out of thin air.

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