Book Review: Death on Tour by Janice Hamrick (Jocelyn Shore #1)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Main character, travel through Egypt

Cons: Obvious villain, Kyla's behavior

The Bottom Line: 

Descriptions are great

But obvious mystery

Disappointed me

Disappointing Murderous Tour of Egypt

Every year, the Mystery Writers of America and Minotaur Books hold a contest for the best crime novel of the year.  Several of those authors have turned into favorites of mine, so when I discovered that author Janice Hamrick had won for Death on Tour, I had to get it.  I was hoping to add a new author to my must buy list.  That didn't happen.

In an effort to get over her recent divorce, history teacher Jocelyn Shore is splurging on her dream trip to Egypt.  She's traveling with her cousin and best friend, Kyla.

But the trip turns tragic the first full morning there when fellow trip member Millie Owens tumbles off one of the pyramids and dies.  The rest of the group isn't too upset to lose Millie since she was a nosy, obnoxious woman.  But then her death is ruled a murder and strange things seem to follow Jocelyn and Kyla wherever the tour takes them.  Can Jocelyn figure out what is happening?

I will give the author credit for mixing a travel log with a mystery.  That's a tricky combination.  You need enough description to make the reader feel like they are there but you still need to keep the story advancing forward.  The descriptions were very well done, and I often felt like I was right there with Jocelyn.  In fact, the book made me want to visit Egypt.

The story itself is my main problem with the book.  The events that happen quickly grow repetitive.  And yet Jocelyn is too stupid to pick up on what is painfully obvious to the reader.  I never figure out the ending, yet I figured this one out early on.  A few sub-plots are resolved anti-climatically.  The resolution of the main plot is well done and exciting, but it came too late for me.

There are a plethora of characters and suspects - all the other people on the tour.  They are introduced too quickly, and I spent much of the book trying to remember who they all are.  As much as I hate character summaries in the beginning of a book, that would have really helped me here.  I did have them all down by the end.  Unfortunately, several of them were unlikable.  I have a feeling I was supposed to like one couple, but their selfishness was a real turn off.  Then there's Kyla.  There's a strong romantic sub-plot, but Kyla's behavior during it was unbecoming the late 20's woman she's supposed to be.  Her Jr. High maturity level was a turn off for too much of the book, and I couldn't see why Jocelyn put up with her at all.  Other than Jocelyn's cluelessness to the events around her, I did like her.  And the love interest is a nice character as well.

Like many books I read, the novel is narrated first person, and I had no trouble getting lost in the story.

While I obviously had my frustrations with the book, it wasn't horrid.  I'm definitely glad to be done with Death on Tour and won't be moving on to any sequels.