If you’re looking for a very light read with minimal tension, almost no action, and more description than dialogue, then this book is just for you.

Nancy Bush’s first book is written in the first person from the point of view of Jane Kelley, a sometimes process server/private eye who seems to spend more time obsessing about her empty refrigerator and how to cadge a free drink than actually doing any investigating.

She is hired by Tess, the ex-wife of Lake Chinook’s richest man, Cotton Reynolds, to find out what happened to their son, Bobby – who allegedly killed his wife and children, then disappeared. Add in Bobby’s best friend, Murphy, who just happens to be Jane’s ex, and you have the formula for a good murder mystery. Unfortunately, the set-up doesn’t follow through. When the body finally shows up, it is obvious – at least to this reader – who the killer is. But the author continues with another hundred pages before revealing the answer, and even then, it’s a bit of a letdown.

Bush spends so much time on description of the broken-down cottage, empty larder, and lakeside bar that the mystery is lost in the details. There is a lot of promise here, but it hasn’t quite reached the top of the murder mystery pack as of yet.

Reviewed by Vicky Burkholder
9/4/2006

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