Roses and Revenge

by Diana Xarissa

[Mystereity Reviews]

I was looking forward to this one, as it's set in Buffalo, where I grew up. Fenella and Daniel are in town for Jack's wedding to his new love Linda. When Linda's ex-husband returns to disrupt the wedding, having left her with no notice or forwarding address years before, tempers flare and George is later found dead in a dumpster. Despite being on vacation thousands of miles away from home, Daniel and Fenella find themselves in the middle of another murder.

I enjoyed this one, but for a while it felt like they were spinning their wheels and felt like it was longer than it could've/should've been. But there were some great moments along the way, as well as very familiar scenery (to me, at least) and at one point, Fenella drives over the Grand Island Bridge with Jack hyperventilating in the back seat and I entirely related. In fact, it triggered flashbacks of driving the bridge in the rain, surrounded by speeding semi trucks and seeing glimpses of the angry Niagara river churning below. *shudders* Yeeeesh. I felt for ya, Jack.

As for the murder itself, there was very little detail as to the manner of death and without any knowledge of the suspects, it felt very much like I was in the dark as much as Fenella and Daniel were, which definitely made it more interesting. There were only 2 things that put me off. First, Fenella was called upon by the detective to talk about suspects, despite having known nearly all of them for just a few hours (really, she had only known them when she was introduced, so more like a few minutes) and I can't see how any detective would bother putting that in a report. Second, there were several clues that would've wrapped up the case fairly quickly that were ignored and given no mention.

Overall, I enjoyed it and it was gratifying to see the formerly absent-minded and co-dependent Jack finally "grow into himself" a little, even taking charge a time or two. If you've been reading the series from the beginning as I have, he's come a long way. With a sweet moment at the end, it was enjoyable from start to finish.