Pros: Strong cast of main characters; eventful story
Cons: More a series of events than a true mystery
The Bottom Line:
Shannon as suspect
After attacker is killed
Events but weak plot
There’s Promise, but this Debut is a Fixer Upper
After watching the first Fixer Upper mystery movie on
Hallmark Movies and Mysteries last month, I got a renewed interest in the books
of Kate Carlisle. I know I read her
first one when it came out years ago, but I couldn’t remember why I’d never
gone on to read more. Still, I decided
to jump into her Fixer Upper mystery series with the first book A High-End Finish.
This series features Shannon Hammer, a contractor in the
small Northern California community of Lighthouse Cove. She has taken over her father’s construction
business and specializes in restoring old Victorians, something that is in
abundance in this town.
Shannon is single, something that doesn’t sit right with her
married friend, who is always trying to set her up on blind dates. Shannon has finally agreed to one with Jerry
Saxton, and dinner is very pleasant.
However, their after dinner walk on the beach turns horribly wrong when Jerry
won’t take no for an answer. Shannon is
forced to defend herself, and she quickly gains fame in her town as a result of
how she fended off the attack.
A couple of days later, Shannon stumbles over Jerry’s dead
body in the basement of one of her construction sites. Jerry has been bashed over the head with one
of Shannon’s tools. Given her recent
public fight with the man, Shannon finds herself the police’s prime
suspect. But given Jerry’s history,
there are plenty of other suspects in town.
Can Shannon build a case against one of them and clear her name?
I was well into this book before I realized why I was
struggling with the plot. I wanted to
like it. I mean, the murder victim is a
complete jerk, which always creates plenty of great suspects. There are plenty of mysterious things
happening, and the case against Shannon gets stronger as the book goes along
thanks to some good twists. Heck, even
Shannon admits that to a casual observer, she would look like the prime
suspect, which was a refreshing admission.
But I realized my problem was that this book was just a
series of mysterious events. While we
are introduced to a collection of good suspects, Shannon spends little time
collecting clues or being distracted by red herrings. Instead, she is constantly reacting to
another event. Don’t get me wrong, I was
never bored. But I like to learn some
secrets along the way, and I felt like we weren’t really moving forward much,
just reacting to the latest event. The
book does come to a suspenseful climax that logically wraps everything up.
It’s a shame I didn’t like the plot better because I love
these characters. Shannon is a strong
character, and she’s got a wonderful group of friends since she grew up in this
town. There is a hint of a love triangle
in this book, although I think I can already tell which way that is going to
go. Both men are certain good characters
as well. Because we spent so little time
with the suspects, they are on the thin side, unfortunately.
Maybe this was why I hadn’t gone back to read more of Kate’s
books before now. I can certainly see
why she has a following because there are elements of A High-End Finish that I enjoyed.
Unfortunately, it winds up just being average overall.
This does sound promising. Maybe the next book will give you more mystery.
ReplyDeleteI have the first few books in this series but haven't read them yet. I do really like her bibliophile series quite a bit and it sounds like it's better written than this series. Hopefully this is just growing pains since it's the first book in the series.
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