This is a review of the advanced copy “An Unattended Death” by Victoria Jenkins for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

In this captivating third novel by Victoria Jenkins (Cruise Control, 2002, etc.), a rural Washington state sheriff’s detective named Irene Chavez believes that a murder has been committed in her jurisdiction.

A body is discovered floating in the slough on the property of a wealthy family’s vacation home, and Irene receives the case by default. Everyone else in the department is on another assignment, so it pretty much falls to her to investigate.

Chavez and her son have moved back to her childhood home from Los Angeles, where following the death of her husband, she found it more and more difficult to raise her son, Victor, in a safe environment. The current case she is dealing with turns out to be one that involves an unattended death that she is pretty certain is murder.

Twenty-nine-year-old psychiatrist Anne Paris, the golden girl in a prominent family of physicians, was last seen going out in her brother’s boat before a violent storm. Now, her body is found, and the probable cause of death is a blow to the back of the skull—and it is not likely that it was made by the boat’s boom.

Irene must investigate and interview the usual list of subjects: Anne’s broken father, her half siblings and their families, Anne’s boyfriend and best friend, the rich neighbor, a colleague and her landlord from Boston, the location of the mental institution where she worked. It seems that many had motive and opportunity, but there’s little evidence to connect any of the suspects to a crime.

Jenkins’ deft use of plot and character skillfully advances the story, and her all-too-human protagonist, Chavez, is credible and identifiable as she strives to solve the case and reconcile her duties as a law enforcement officer and a single parent.

A product of working-class parents, she is not your typical glamorous heroine but someone who’s low key, trying to balance work and home life while being all too aware of her limitations and slightly uncomfortable around those who’ve had more advantages than she has.

Looking forward to her next book, this reviewer is recommending this book and rates the book with 4 out of 5 stars. ( )

This is a small, quiet novel Set in Puget Sound, that introduces a fairly strong new detective. Irene Chavez has returned from the big city with a teenaged son, and a slightly murky past. When she is called to the scene of an ‘unattended death’, she finds a weirdly dysfunctional family at the heart of it with some murkiness of their own. The murder victim is a charming young woman, maybe, who was loved by all, or maybe not. This is a book of atmosphere more than mystery, though there is certainly a mystery at the core. As to a review of it…that is hard. Irene is often tough to like and even tougher to relate to. All of the characters in fact are a bit unlikable. But, the writing almost redeems it--almost. Some sections are startling in their atmosphere, evocative language or intriguing plot lines, while other sections are a slog to get through. Overall…I liked it, but more for what it could be than what it is. ( )

The positive side of this is Jenkins did a decent job with evoking the physical atmosphere of the story, be it the character’s physical descriptions or the environment that surrounded them. The downside was the characters themselves that were lacking. I couldn’t get behind any of them, they were so one to non-dimensional. I loathed the entire Paris clan and Irene, well, she was simply uninspiring. ( )

This was a mellow easy read. The mystery was intriguing and the characters unique. Set on the coast in Washington State, the author paints a beautiful picture of the landscape, the sea, the flora of the northwest. It is a perfect picture of a summer vacation, but it has turned suddenly sad with the death of one of the seasonal families own. Detective Irene Chavez investigates the supposed accidental death of Anna,the daughter,sister,girlfriend of the people in residence for the summer in her family summer home.
The story is an interesting look into the juxtapositions between the rich tourists and the small town law enforcement.
I received a free copy of this book through early reviewers.

First Line: The body, face down and almost completely submerged in the tea-colored water of the slough, might easily have been mistaken for a driftwood log.

After four years with the LAPD, Irene Chavez has returned to her rural Washington state roots to raise her teenage son. Although there is no overt hostility towards her in the Mason County Sheriff's Department, Irene knows she changes the dynamic and makes several of the men uneasy. She can deal with it.

Especially in times like now, when there's an unattended death and everyone else is either on vacation or has full case loads. By default, Irene gets this death-- the probable boating accident/drowning of Anne Paris on her family's summer property on an island in Puget Sound.

As Irene makes her measured, careful way through the investigation and gets to know those closest to the deceased, she is convinced that the boom of a sailboat didn't kill the young psychiatrist, but someone close to her. All she has to do is prove it.

Irene Chavez is definitely a character that I want to see a lot more of. Her background, her self-reliance, her becoming a police officer then a young widow who decides to move her son from Los Angeles to rural Washington state... as Jenkins gradually unfolded Irene's history throughout the narrative, the more I liked her, and the more I wanted to read about her. The relationship between her and her son is a special one that adds so much to the story as does the appearance of a new county attorney who seems interested in her. Irene has closed off many rooms of her life, and as she investigates further into the case of the dead woman, the reader feels one or two of those doors beginning to open. The lure of what lies beyond is tantalizing.

Jenkins' descriptions of life in a remote area on Puget Sound are almost poetic in setting a scene and a mood, and although I knew the identity of the killer the very first time the person was described, it didn't matter. I thoroughly enjoyed the careful plotting, the strong sense of place, and the oh-so-rich character development. I am definitely going to keep both eyes open for another book featuring Detective Irene Chavez! ( )