Bucket List of Suspicion
I’ll admit, I was a little unsure when I heard the premise of Laura Bradford’s A Friend for Hire Mysteries, but the first one proved to be completely charming. As a result, I was looking forward to A Perilous Pal, and I was rewarded.
If you missed the first in this series, you should know it features Emma Westlake. When her travel agency started failing because of lack of clients, she got talked into starting A Friend for Hire. The idea behind it is that people can hire her to go to the gym with them, be a supporting member in an audience, or other such activities where having someone there with you would be helpful. Of course, since this is a mystery series, Emma finds that her new business gets her involved in murders.
Emma’s newest client is Kim Felder. Kim has devoted her life to her husband and children, but now her children have grown and her husband has left her for his secretary, so she is at loose ends. Unsure what to do with herself, she hires Emma to help her find some new hobbies. They begin to make a bucket list of things Kim would like to do, but then Kim throws on a few ideas on how she’s like to make her ex suffer – all in good fun and as a way to let off some steam.
Unfortunately, Kim’s ex-husband is killed that night. Naturally, the items on Kim’s list come back to bite her, and the police think they have their killer. Emma may have just met Kim, but she doesn’t feel that her new client is a killer. Can she get Kim off?
Because the first book in the series already set up the premise, we are able to jump into this story fairly quickly. I actually did buy Emma’s belief in Kim’s innocence with how the character was presented even if Emma hardly knew her. Okay, so there is the usual cozy mystery trope in play as well, but it still felt right as we progressed through the book. The pace was steady, and I was always engaged, looking forward to finding out what was going to happen next. The climax was logical and wrapped things up well.
We actually saw most of the characters we met in the first book again, which made me very happy. I really enjoyed the cast and liked spending more time with them here. Several storylines that were introduced in the first book continued here, and the ending left me wanting to know what is going to happen to the characters next.
I will say that my complaints with the first book held true again here. One of the characters can be a little argumentative, and other is too down on herself. However, these are minor complaints overall, especially since these scenes often made me laugh before they were over.
The new characters we meet along the way are just as well drawn as the ones we met in book one, which is no surprise.
I also appreciated how this mystery impacted Emma’s budding relationship with Deputy Jack Riordan. Their initial reactions where understandable, and I loved the maturity as they worked them out.
Fans of Laura Bradford’s other mysteries will enjoy seeing references to them pop up here. No, she hasn’t worked all of them in. If you aren’t familiar with them, that’s okay because these are Easter Eggs that are fun to spot but don’t impact the overall story.
This series is like a warm hug with a murder mystery in it. A Perilous Pal is fun, mysterious, and refreshing. If that’s what you are looking for, you’ll be glad you picked it up.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
I didn't read the first book in the series, but I read this one, and really enjoyed it as well. I agree that "a friend for hire" doesn't sound like a good idea, but the author does a wonderful job making it work.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a fun one. And honestly I like the idea of a friend for hire.
ReplyDeleteGreat review Mark Baker. I’m loving this series. I hate to see the ending of this book come and hopefully there will be a next one.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read this series yet but it's on my list. This looks so fun! Glad to see how much you enjoyed it - now I just need to pick up the first one.
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