Ellie Campbell

Cathy and her friend Pimple have a neighborhood business with which they help neighbors with confidential issues. Thus far it hasn’t been much more than helping elderly clients find missing pets or a schoolboy with a missing bike. When Cathy accepts a job to help find a missing dog that isn’t actually missing, she finds she might actually have more going on than she can handle. Her friends are pulling her in many directions and her husband is thinking of moving to the country to avoid the crime, murder and drug use that has suddenly spiked in their quiet neighborhood. Cathy realizes that her cases and the crime spree may have a connection but can she find it before someone gets hurt?

This isn’t a typical cozy story. The story line is quite original. While Cathy, does fit the mold of the determined small business owner woman out to prove herself, she really is just a middle aged wife and mom who is trying to make ends meet a little better with some self employment. She is a woman that I think many readers will identify with.

The plot, which of course includes a murder to be solved, doesn’t revolve around the murder itself. The mystery has many disparate seeming lines that keep the story moving and tie together beautifully at the end.

My son once interviewed a fire captain and the question that everyone wanted the boy to ask was whether he had actually ever rescued a cat from a tree. Turns out that he had, twice. As I read the opening of this book I had to laugh as I wondered if he ever had been called out to rescue a mom rescuing a cat from a tree. The rest of the book, even through its serious moments, kept me laughing. As the story progressed, the situation seemed typically Cathy as she put herself into and got out one humorously awkward predicament after another. I snickered at how ineffective her attempt at disguising herself was. I actually guffawed at the waitress calling her out for a fib about her Twitter followers. Cathy and her diverse group of friends were quite fun and I would enjoy spending more time with them in the future.… (mehr)

I have to admit that it took me a while to finish this book. I was enjoying it but it just seemed to take forever! I stuck it out and am really glad I did! It made me remember friends from school and how everything was so HUGE then. Friends were our BEST friends. Boyfriends were our TRUE LOVE and we would be together FOREVER! In hindsight, the friends were ok, we laughed, we fought and laughed some more. We weren't necessarily the nicest to each other but it worked. The boyfriends were JUST crushes and JUST boys. As an adult, you do tend to gloss over your younger self and see things through rose colored glasses but when confronted with reality you realize that we are all good and all bad and friends are what you make them. I really enjoyed the book overall and will definitely be reading more from this sister team.

I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.
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