Book Review: The Clovis Incident by Pari Noskin Taichert (Sasha Solomon #1)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Strong suspense over all and clever use of words.

Cons: Meandering first 20 pages or so.

The Bottom Line: 

Different mystery

Get to know New Mexico

It's worth tracking down

Intriguing Debut Novel

Sasha Solomon needs to start her PR consulting business back up sine she's just been fired from her current job. Fortunately, she has one possibility already lined up. The city of Clovis wants to increase their tourism revenue and is looking for a PR consultant to help them do that. As an added bonus, she'll get to spend time with one of her best friends, Mae King, a local dairy farmer.

Mae is acting weird, however. When Sasha finally gets Mae to open up, Mae reveals two secrets. First, aliens have regularly kidnapped her. Second, there's a dead body on her land, and she doesn't really want to call the police for fear they'll arrest her.

Sasha isn't keen on the idea of keeping the secret and calls the police the first chance she gets. After she does, she realizes Mae's fears were justified as she seems to be the only suspect the police want to talk about. Mae's daughter isn't helping matters any by sticking her nose into the two's friendship.

Meanwhile, at her interview with the Chamber of Commerce, Sasha learns they want her to come up with a PR plan to put them on the map and greatly increase their tourism revenue. And they hint that the aliens in the area really just might be the way to go. She's got just one week to come up with a plan to present to find out if she'll get the job.

The book starts out all over the place, with talk of Sasha's hallucinations and a visit with her mom. I was beginning to wonder if the praise I'd heard for the book was well founded or not, but then Sasha arrived in Clovis. It's really not too far in, but from that point on, the plot picks up and the book becomes quite interesting. There are several red herrings that distract for a while, but the solution is a little obvious before the end. Even so, the author does a good job of keeping the reader entertained with quirky and sinister characters. The writing style is quite fun as well. There are long passages of dialog at times, and every so often, the author uses a cleaver turn of phrase that makes you stop and reread the passage to fully enjoy it.

Here's an example from about a quarter of the way in. "Finished, he pushed himself up out of the chair, the bottom button of his shirt popping with the effort. It flew onto the tiled floor, landing with a plink. Embarrassment followed its trajectory like a heat-seeking missile."

Near the end of the book, we get this gem. "Our conversation swerved to a halt; I could smell the tires burning."

The couple of flaws are worth mentioning, but hardly detract from the overall enjoyment. The Clovis Incident is a quirky cozy that will leave the reader ready for Sasha's next case.