This is from an old series, published back in the late 80's / early 90's that I read when they were new. At the time I was in my very early 20's and I vaguely remember that the writing was ok, but overall not very interesting. I definitely wasn't the book's demographic at the time.
Recently, I saw this one for sale and snagged it wondering what I'd think of it now, all these years later and I'm happy to say it wasn't a wasted purchase; a mystery centering on 40-somethings, oddly enough, appeals to me more now that it did then.
Susan Henshaw is a married, upper-middle-class suburbanite, desperately trying to get ready for Christmas while juggling her two teenaged kids and a mother-in-law that arrived a week earlier than planned. Her best friend, Kathleen, is a former cop, newly married and in a much higher tax bracket, trying to negotiate a new town and social strata while dealing with a visit from her own mother. Together they get involved in the mystery surrounding a murdered neighbourhood man whose body disappears right after it's discovered, leaving his ex-wife implicated in the crime.
It's a great mystery plot - really convoluted but in a way that makes complete sense at the end. The writing is solid, too, although my recently purchased copy is an ARC, and absolutely riddled with continuity errors - I'd like to think they were caught before publication, but I did ding the story 1/2 star, regardless.
Were I ever to stumble across the other books in the series, I'd definitely snap them up; it's been so long since I've read them that I've forgotten all the pertinent details of the mysteries themselves. It would be like discovering them all over again.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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26 December, 2017:
Finished reading
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26 December, 2017:
Reviewed
