Literally Murder

[cornerofmadness]

Literally Murder by Ali Brandon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I came into this on book four after being given this book. Darla owns a bookstore in NYC and she's on her way to a cat show in Florida because her big black cat, Hamlet, became a viral internet entity after imitating her doing karate. Going with them is Jack, a cop turned P.I. friend of Darla and whose mom lives in a senior condo in that same FL town.

Darla and Jack are fun women to be sure and Hamlet is a cool cat. However this took literally 110 page to have any crime happen and another 20 pages before we to the murder. Now there is some set up in those 130 pages and it was entertaining enough but 130 pages of set up in a 290 page book is a little long. Literally nearly one half of this mystery isn't a mystery.

Jack and Darla get dragged into the investigation partly because of Hamlet and partly because of Jack's mom Nattie who is friends with the accused. Jack would much rather leave it to the cops as she isn't licensed in the state of FL. But investigate they do and it was also enjoyable enough.

What bothered me was the end. I'm a little tired of the over the top made for hollywood sorts of endings that get tacked into these things and the characters have to be pretty dumb to get into in the first place. I really want to say it's okay to have a lower stakes, lower energy ending but I guess the publishing world disagrees because we keep getting this ridiculous stuff.

Would I read more of this series? Maybe. I like that Darla has an in law enforcement friend but I wouldn't go back to read the others in the series because of a few lines in this one describing the detective in them as not wanting Darla involved (a hard no for me) but they're friends now so that's probably changed. That and she blames his misogynistic attitudes towards women on his Italianess. Oh boy...



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