Murder by Death

I put this book off for a long time because the original author of the series, Blaize Clement, sadly passed away, and her son took over writing the series and frankly I was pretty sure he wasn't going to do it right.  But the PopSugar challenge has a "set in your hometown" prompt and this one fits.  Then DH found me yesterday staring at the TBR pile with a glazed look and closed his eyes, pointed, and said "read that one".  This is the one he pointed to.

I wasn't wrong, John Clement didn't get it right, but he didn't really get it wrong either.  Aside from a few spots that screamed "I'm a man trying to write a woman's inner dialogue" and one line that just flat out screamed "chauvinist!" ("With everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, I'd be happy to have a big strong man around.").  There was also a line about her becoming turned on because her date started swearing, which was just eye-rolling-ly ridiculous.

But most of the book was pretty close in tone to Ms. Clement's work, and the mystery was nicely plotted.  I wasn't shocked by the killer, but I think that's just become I'm a cynic about murder mysteries; the author certainly did nothing to telegraph the solution early on.  There's a heavier atmosphere in these books than you'd normally find in the lightweight mysteries, and he stays pretty true to that, too.  The setting might as well double as a travel guide - Ms. Clement and her son both obviously know Sarasota and Siesta Key very well; I'm pretty sure one could draw a pretty accurate map based on the narrative alone.

I don't know if I'm reading the next one or not; John Clement didn't often go wrong, but when he did it wasn't subtle, but these books are like teleporting home.  So, probably.

[PopSugar 2015 Reading Challenge: A book that takes place in your hometown.]