Wednesday, August 9, 2017

A PANICKED PREMONITIONI by Victoria Laurie

Publisher:   Berkley
Published:  July 4, 2017
ISBN:        978-0451473905
Genre:       Cozy Mystery
Format:     Print
Obtained via:  Publisher  
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com

FOUR HEARTS

 

Abby Cooper-Rivers’s husband, Dutch, and her best friend, Candice’s husband, Brice, have embarked on a new venture in addition to their jobs as FBI agents. Along with Abby and Dutch’s friend Dave, they’ve opened a “safe room” business catering to the wealthy homeowners of Austin. Things are moving along smoothly, however one client has a slight problem she wants Abby’s input on. When Abby and Candice arrive the woman, Murielle McKenna, turns out to be quite the piece of work.  She’s been pursuing Dutch and has a penchant for suing anyone and everyone. When Abby and Candice leave Murielle’s house they find there is more to worry about than the woman’s veiled threats of a lawsuit.  They learn from Dave’s wife that he is missing and not only that, he’s the key suspect in the murder of four people—two of them the homeowners of a house Dutch’s company has installed a safe room in.  The plot thickens when Dave’s wife also goes missing.   As Abby, Candice, Dutch and Brice try to locate Dave and his wife the case takes a series of twists and turns, linking several homeowners to each other along.  Even with Abby’s sixth sense they cannot find the missing couple or reason out why the original murders happened.

Victoria Laurie takes the characters in her Psychic Eye series down a new road in the latest book, A PANICKED PREMONITION.  With Dutch and Brice’s new business there is some solid potential for some fun new stories.  I like how Abby continues to develop—Laurie hasn’t left her stagnant in time, but she’s grown and matured.  As Abby approaches her 40’s she has become a bit more introspective and secure in herself. Not that she wasn’t secure in her skills before—she just knows herself better and is able to give more of herself to her husband. Abby and Dutch have been totally and completely in love from the beginning, but Abby has had some issues to overcome before she could truly let Dutch in.  His own unconditional love for Abby is laid out in the stories making them a terrific couple.

A PANICKED PREMONITION has a good mystery with some nice red herrings…just when you think you’ve figured out what is going on Laurie throws in yet another layer of information.  You totally know how frustrated Abby is feeling when she reaches for a thread only to have it unravel before her eyes. The answer is there…you just need to be paying very close attention to the clues Laurie embeds in the story. 

In addition to having her supporting characters develop along their way she adds a few new ones that will make for some good reads in the future.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

 

 


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