BOOK REVIEW: Dressed to Kill by Lynn Cahoon

Dressed To Kill (A Tourist Trap Mystery #4)

by Lynn Cahoon (Goodreads Author)

Paperback

Published June 23rd 2015

Goodreads synopsis:

Jill Gardner—owner of Coffee, Books, and More in the tucked-away town of South Cove, California—is not particularly thrilled to be portraying a twenties flapper for the dinner theater murder mystery. Though it is for charity…

Of course everyone is expecting a “dead” body at the dress rehearsal…but this one isn’t acting! It turns out the main suspect is the late actor’s conniving girlfriend Sherry…who also happens to be the ex-wife of Jill’s main squeeze. Sherry is definitely a master manipulator…but is she a killer? Jill may discover the truth only when the curtain comes up on the final act…and by then, it may be far too late. 

***

4 Stars

I am not sure how I skipped this book in the series, but I did. I love the world the author has created here as I have said in other blog posts. But this book, for some reason, didn’t capture me the way the other books had. I didn’t feel excited reading it. It also took me awhile to get back into the book and become more familiar with the character set again. I think a tiny bit of introduction to the main players might be a good idea here. Again, just my opinion, others may have found this an easy transition but in my case I had been away from the characters for a few months and I needed a refresher on the base/core group.

I think my main reticence came from Jill’s need to “not interfere” with her boyfriend’s investigation like she had in the past. I know that her decisions to hold back in that way was probably how the rest of us in the “real world” might tackle the problem, but Jill? It just seemed unrealistic and unnatural. And in someways, I think the book suffered from this plot point.

Don’t get me wrong, I still gave the book 4-stars because…. favorite book world ever. But I thought it just needed a bit of an oomph somewhere. Not completely pleased, but I didn’t hate it either. I look forward to the next book in the series (I am reading out of order): Tea Cups and Carnage.

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) from NetGalley in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.