Book Review: Oh Danny Girl by C. Michele Dorsey (Danny and Nora O’Brien Mysteries #1)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Strong characters and a page turning plot

Cons: A couple, but they are both minor

The Bottom Line:

Unexpected gun

Then, husband’s death a scandal

Page turning great read

Life Unraveling Can Be Dangerous

When an author I already love starts a new series, I am always willing to give their new venture a chance.  Since I’ve enjoyed C. Michele Dorsey’s Sabrina Salter mysteries, I figured I’d enjoy Oh Danny Girl.  What I wasn’t expecting was just how hooked I would get on this story.

Danny O’Brien’s biggest problem is that her middle aged mother, Nora, has decided to join Danny’s law practice.  Since Danny was in solo practice, she isn’t sure she will have enough work to keep her mother busy, much less the issues of being her mother’s boss.

Then Danny’s entire world come crashing down around her.  It starts when she steps into a courthouse and a gun is found in her briefcase.  Then the gun is connected to a high-profile case where her husband is defending an alleged cop killer.  Then her husband is found murdered in a hotel bed, naked, with another woman.

As if grieving wasn’t bad enough, Danny now has to figure out her own legal challenges.  But as secrets about her husband come to light, Danny realizes she has to figure out exactly what is happening.  Can she do it before it is too late?

This book jumps right into the story.  And I was hooked.  It truly doesn’t take long for the teaser I’ve given to take place, and then Danny is trying to deal with all life is throwing at her.  There were times I was a step ahead of the plot, but there were plenty of twists that took me by surprise as well.  Every time real life demanded I set the book down, it was a major disappointment.  And the ending wrapped this up wonderfully.

One reason this story works so well are the characters.  While we jump into the action fairly quickly, we still get to know Danny pretty well.  She and the rest of the cast are real people, and that makes us care about the outcome.  It also means that some of the revelations and twists of the plot hit us, too.  I did feel that some of the character growth happened a little too quickly.  I get it from a story point of view, it just didn’t quite feel realistic to me.  But I’m nit picking here.

The story unfolds from several different characters’ points of view.  These changes always happen at chapter breaks, and it is always clear whose head we are in when the chapter starts.  This is another reason why I felt like I really got to know the characters well, and it also does a great job of giving us all aspects of the case.  These chapter breaks were used to give us false suspense occasionally, as someone learned something but we didn’t learn it until a couple of chapters later.  I hate that technique.  Fortunately, it only happened a couple of times, so again, this is a minor complaint.

Since this is a thriller, it isn’t as clean as most of the cozies I read, but as long as you know that going in, you’ll be fine.

I really can’t emphasize enough how much I got caught up in this story.  This is one of those books you can’t wait to finish to find out what happens but at the same time don’t want to end because you are enjoying it so much.

Oh Danny Girl was a page turner that left me satisfied when I turned the final page.  I’m curious to see what will happen next to these characters, so I will definitely be along for the ride when the sequel comes out.

NOTE: I received a copy of this book.