Bowled Over (Vintage Kitchen Mystery, #2)

by Victoria Hamilton

[MurderByDeath]

I have been on a run of mediocrity in my book reading lately, and this book was no exception. My three stars, to be clear, are "it was just ok". It wasn't an awful read, but it wasn't as good as I think it should be.

The premise of the plot is excellent. Jaymie's estranged from her childhood best friend since high school, for reasons she's never understood, as Kathy would never explain why she suddenly started hating her. Kathy is murdered and the weapon belongs to Jaymie. In an effort to understand what happened, she starts digging around. I figured out the solution to the murder mystery from the first clue, but I'm not sure why it was so obvious to me, as from a writing standpoint, I'd argue that it was well done.

The best parts of this book, IMO, were the interactions she had with Detective Christian and the times she was telling her sister Becca to back off and out of her business and those moments were very few and far between. Those were the only times a spirit seemed to enter into the story, any spark or hint of a more complex personality than an automaton. Otherwise, all the characters felt a bit bland and flat (except Kathy before she was killed). A lot of repetition of internal dialogue and emotion throughout the book made me a bit crazy as well. Each character is likeable enough, but there is a great potential here to really create a lively, interesting cast of characters and I'm a bit sad that they're all walking around like they've been drinking Xanax milkshakes.

I love the premise as well - vintage kitchenware is an interest of mine, so I really want to like these books. But even that is disappointingly subdued - very little talk about vintage kitchenware at all.

I'll read the next book, but if there isn't a lot of improvement, I'll have to accept that this series is not for me.