Generally, I adore the mysteries published by Henery Press, but this one was a bit not for me. The amount of science really turned me off, but if science is your thing, and you like lighter mysteries, be sure to check this out!

I did not find Aggie to be a very likable or sympathetic main sleuth, which, for me, is a big part of whether or not I can totally immerse into the story. Not that she is evil or that I dislike her, only that she never really came alive for me. Also, when Aggie described others, it always often came across as snide or overly judgmental instead of factual.

It seemed as if the research was quite thorough, unfortunately I would really not know if all the scientific lingo and data were random words sprinkled over the pages, and more importantly, I could not really care.

Recommended for American cozy mystery buffs who enjoy some science thrown into the mix.

**eARC netgalley** ( )

Aggie Mundeen lives in San Antonio, Texas, and writes a newspaper column, "Stay Young with Aggie." She's terrified of getting older, and is constantly looking for ways to maintain her youth. In this vein, she is taking a college class about the Human Genome project and DNA. But after asking questions one day in class, her professor, Kermit Carmody, drops dead. She becomes suspicious that he might have been murdered, and decides to solve the case on her own, because she thinks it will make Detective Sam Vanderhoven, the object of her affections, realize he can't live without her.

First off, Aggie doesn't seem to realize she's thirty-nine, hardly even close to a rocking chair. She also has a limited amount of self-esteem, thinking if she ages Sam won't even be interested in her. What she fails to realize is that she's independent and successful. Aggie never seems to come to terms that perhaps what she needs is to figure out why she thinks the way she does, even when others in the story (including Sam) point things out to her. Happiness can't be found with another person until you find the happiness within yourself.

But I digress: After her professor dies, Aggie is sure he was murdered - she just doesn't know how. So she sets about thinking of ways to find out the killer, and more importantly, what it was that got him killed. Aggie is sure it has something to do with his research into anti-aging. But who? She becomes suspicious of everyone in the class, and everyone he worked with.

So much so, that she goes around actively seeking people and asking them questions - just until they begin to get suspicious, then she backs off. Even when Aggie is attacked one night, she not only doesn't tell Sam what happened, she doesn't stop investigating...and finally it leads to the fact that she discovers another dead body, and is accused of burglary and murder and booked into jail. But does this stop our intrepid Aggie? No. The minute she's released, she decides she wants to find out who killed the second person, and clear herself of the crime.

It seems Aggie has an uncanny ability to put herself in all manner of eventful situations that aren't healthy to her. For someone who's interested in anti-aging, she seems to be going into things that can age a person pretty fast. Yet, as we know, all will come about in the end, and the murderer will be found. But after that...does Aggie finally get the response from Sam that she's looking for? You'll have to read the book to find out; there are some things I just won't tell... Recommended. ( )

I loved the first two books in this series so I was really excited to read this one. After all the brilliant humor in the first two books the absolute nonexistence of humor in this book was such a letdown. In fact I couldn't find anything that I loved from the first two books in this book.

I could not stand Aggie in this book. Usually her humor really shines but as I said before there was no humor in this. This time around Aggie seemed absolutely desperate and pathetic when it came to Sam and completely inept and over her head when it came to her investigation. Some of the comments Aggie made about Sam and her love for him were just downright weird and creepy. I am all for a relationship between the two of them and have been from the start but can't see how Aggie thought her behavior would make Sam love her.

Aggie spent the whole book bumbling about "investigating" a murder. There were some consequences to her investigation which I wholeheartedly felt she deserved. Her stubbornness at trying to solve what happened (so that Sam would love her) was just unbearable at times. If it weren't for the fact that I felt like I had to write a review for this, I probably would have given up on this halfway through. Not even the action towards the end could really even save this for me.

I am not sure whether there will be more books in this series but I do know that if there are I won't be reading them. I really loved this series but this book was such a one-eighty from the other two that I just can't take anymore chances on this.

(I received an egalley of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.) ( )