Hazardous Duty (Squeaky Clean Mysteries)

by Christy Barritt

Hazardous Duty introduces Gabby St. Clair, a woman with a most unusual job - crime scene cleaner. This isn't your typical cosy murder mystery - if only because of the description of blood and gore. Afterall the opening line is truly epic;

Whistling a tune from Fiddler on the Roof, I used my tweezers to work a piece of Gloria Cunningham’s skull out of the sky blue wall.

Barritt, Christy. Hazardous Duty: Squeaky Clean Mysteries, Book 1: An Amateur Sleuth Mystery and Suspense Series, Christian Fiction (p. 1). River Heights. Kindle Edition.

Still it wasn't violent or brutal or graphic enough to be your typical crime fiction novel either. It's mostly pretty tame. It certainly has nothing on Law and Order or Criminal Minds. The mystery was interesting and sufficiently complex. I liked the characters for the most part. Gabby was funny and I loved her obsession with musicals and her quest to come up with a decent advertising jingle. Sierra was clearly a good friend and Riley seemed to be decent.

The romance absolutely sucked. On every level. I would've preferred the romance was just left out of it altogether. The only other thing that I didn't really like was Christianity - but considering it is Christian fiction that probably shouldn't have come as much of a surprise as it did. It wasn't too in your face but it was enough for it to be off putting for me. Particularly Gabby's scathing remarks about Christians. Fair enough, comments considering God and whether or not he exists but it felt like it was trying too hard to be non-Christian friendly and I didn't rate it.

Overall though it was an interesting read - it definitely had an unusual premise. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.