An aspiring suspense author finds herself writing mysteries by day and solving them by night in the second Writer’s Apprentice Mystery by the author of A Dark and Stormy Murder and the Undercover Dish Mysteries.
In the quaint town of Blue Lake, Indiana, Lena London is settling into her dream job, but someone is making her life a nightmare…
Things are beginning to go right for Lena. She’s got a new job assisting suspense novelist and friend, Camilla Graham. She lives rent-free in Camilla’s beautiful, Gothic house. She even has a handsome new boyfriend, Sam West.
After being under attack by the media and his neighbors, Sam has recently been cleared of suspicion for murder. Journalists and townsfolk alike are remorseful, and one blogger would even like to apologize to him in person. But when she’s found dead behind Sam’s house, Lena must dodge paparazzi as she unravels the many mysteries that threaten to darken the skies of her little town and her newfound love with Sam.
The author has done something interesting in this series (for a cozy), making it one you definitely want to read in order. Each book has its requisite self-contained murder mystery, but there's a much more interesting mystery arcing over several books, concerning an innocent man being accused of murdering his missing wife.
This mystery arc keeps things interesting and kept me reading, even when I thought the MC was way overdoing her hero-worship of her boss (a famous author), which luckily is only at its worst at the very start. The MC is generally too sunny and optimistic, actually. I like her, but she seems to be missing depth that comes from the more complex emotions, so that even when she's 'angry' it's impossible to take it seriously.
But those are small characterisation issues; the rest of the mystery is really different and quite interesting. I love the amount of research the characters involve themselves in as a means of trying to 'investigate', rather than bumbling about interrogating their neighbours. And I really wanted to find out how the multi-book story arc ended, staying up way too late last night in order to do so. Of course, just when one part ended, another started, guaranteeing a continuation of the intrigue through at least one more book.
LOTS of potential with this series, if the author can continue the great plotting and can tighten up the characters a bit.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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23 October, 2017:
Finished reading
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23 October, 2017:
Reviewed