Book Review: Too Big to Die by Sue Ann Jaffarian (Odelia Grey #12)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great characters, fast moving mystery

Cons: None

The Bottom Line:

An act of kindness

Embroil in fast moving case

Will delight her fans

Odelia Gets Caught in a Big Case

Right place, wrong time.  You hear that phrase every so often, but it couldn’t be truer than in Too Big to Die, the twelfth Odelia Grey mystery.  It’s a wild ride that fans of the series will love.

Odelia and her husband Greg are out for a Saturday of running errands when they hear a dog trapped in a car.  Given that this is in the middle of a summer heat wave, the dog is in danger of dying from the heat.  Odelia and Greg, with the help of a man who happens to be walking by, break the car window and rescue the dog just as the owner shows up.  The owner happens to be Marla Kingston, former reality TV star turned wife of a rich and powerful businessman.

Unfortunately, Marla’s husband is a client of Odelia’s law firm, and he demands Odelia be fired when he finds out.  Then the man who helped Odelia and Greg is shot just outside of Greg’s business.  What have they stumbled into?

As any fan of the series will tell you, they’ve found another fast-moving case with plenty of twists and turns.  I never wanted to put the book down because I had to know what was going to happen next.  And since this book hits close to home for Odelia, the book has an extra pull to it.  She manages to uncover quite a few secrets before she puts all the pieces together.

One of the things Odelia uncovers involves a series regular’s past.  And yes, I’m being vague on purpose here.  Naturally, Odelia spends some time working on that aspect of the case.  If you jumped into the series here, you might not care as much.  However, long time fans of the series, and I am definitely one of them, will only find it more motivation to find out how this part of the book plays out.

Over the course of the series, we’ve gotten quite a group of series regulars, which means that Odelia seems to rotate sidekicks.  This time, her best friend Zee is along for the ride at times.  I always get a kick out of the two of them together.  Other regulars make appearances that I enjoyed.  The characters introduced for this story make a strong impression as well.

Time spent with Odelia is always enjoyable, and Too Big to Die is no exception.  The pages flew by all too quickly.  If you haven’t met Odelia yet, you really need to fix that today.

Looking for more?  Here are the Odelia Grey mysteries in order.