Barbara Barrett (1)

Ro Summerfield, retired homicide detective, now partner with her daughter Val in a Reno business, is enlisted by her former partner and the police captain to assist in an investigation since there is a staffing shortage. Her daughter is also involved as a consultant. What about their business? Well, since the victim is the building inspector and Ro and Val are on hold until other inspectors can get to their project. So Ro and Val start digging into the victim's life and things are not pretty.

Complications and obstacles abound as more and more issues in the Inspection Office turn up. But is there another reason that he may have been killed?

The twists and turns were intriguing, love the characters.… (mehr)

Florida, cozy-mystery, small-business, small-town, renovation, retired-cop, family-dynamics, friction, friendship, murder, murder-investigation, consultant, procedural, law-enforcement, inspector, cat****

Retired from being a homicide detective following a serious work-related back injury, Rowena "Ro" Summerfield is once again working with her former partner Homicide Detective Herc Morgan to investigate a murder. This time her 35 y/o daughter (who is also her business partner) is joining them as a technical consultant. The publisher's blurb is a good intro and no need to repeat. It's pretty good whodunit and I'll be looking forward to next in series. Cat lovers will enjoy the homey interludes.
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Backlit PR via NetGalley. Thank you… (mehr)

Rowena Summerfield is in business with her daughter renovatingand flipping houses. Ro is the designer and her daughter, Valerie, is the muscle of the business. Valerie, without her partner/Mom's approval acquires a new house to work on but they are both surprised when they learn that this building was once a brothel hidden in a quiet residential neighborhood. Shortly, after starting the work, the previous owner is found murder. It turns out that Ro is a retired homicide detective and that her former partner, Herc, needs some assistance because of staff shortages.

Digging into the past of the former madam Ro and Herc unearth former ladies of the night and clients that all had reason to fear disclosure but who was scared enough to kill?

I liked the premise but the characters needed a bit more fleshing out. The mystery was entertaining.… (mehr)

Sydney Bonner and her husband, Trip, are invited by one of the neighbors farther down the block to join in the holiday lighting extravaganza. Since Syd will be working on the Sheriff's re-election campaign, she thinks this is a great project for Trip to take on to keep himself busy. However, the neighbor meets a shocking end and Trip's project turns into a murder investigation with Syd riding shotgun with the sheriff while her other Mah Jongg cohorts dig into the neighborhood dynamics and who wasn't lit up by the extravaganza's leader.

I loved the way that the neighborhood lighting project/murder was cleverly woven together with the election campaign. I just love the characters and how each book seems to highlight a different charaacte4r so that we get to know them better.

But we definitely need more Mah Jongg!… (mehr)