Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Good mystery and setting
Cons: Characters could be stronger
The Bottom Line:
Island movie set
How did two teens disappear?
Great summer setting
Life’s Not Quite a Beach
When I was looking to round out my January reading list, I
decided to pull out Murder on the Half Shell, which has been sitting on
my to be read mountain range for a while now.
It turned out to be fortuitous because this book takes movie caterer
Penelope Sutherland on location to an island off the coast of Florida. Who doesn’t want to read about summer on the
beach in the middle of January? (Yes,
I’m in Southern California, but still!)
Penelope and her crew are working on a period movie that
once again stars her best friend, Arlena.
The island is small enough that they are the majority of the non-locals this
summer, and their presence is a boom for the local economy. Penelope has rounded out her crew with some
locals, including two teenage girls who work for her part time as servers. After a Friday night party to celebrate how
well the movie is going, the two girls disappear.
Suspicion quickly falls on Emilio Babineau, one of the chefs
that Penelope studied under during culinary school. The chef is planning to open a franchise of
his popular sea food restaurant on the island, and the suspicion is hurting him
with the locals. Penelope doesn’t want
to believe her friend could be guilty, but there was an incident that happened
in the past that makes her doubt her beliefs in his innocence. How could the girls disappear on such a small
island? Is Emilio really innocent?
It’s been over three years since I read the first book in
the series, so I had forgotten who all the characters were and what their
relationships to each other are. Sadly,
this book did little to remind me of that since it doesn’t offer much in the
way of introductions to the characters.
I was able to figure out everyone’s relationships before too much time
had passed, but it wasn’t as easy as it should have been. It doesn’t help that it took a while to get
to know the characters. They definitely
have different personalities, but again, it wasn’t obvious right away, so
remember how they fit into the story was hard.
On the other hand, the story is strong. Naturally, with two girls missing, I felt the
tension right away. It’s actually an
interesting contrast between the slow life on the island and the suspense of
the mystery. I felt like we got the best
of both worlds – enough tension to keep us interested, but yet the slow pace of
island life. Don’t misunderstand, there
are some good twists along the way, and plenty of red herrings to keep us
engaged. The plot wraps up well and
leaves us satisfied. Author Shawn Reilly
Simmons has found a way to balance an engaging mystery with the relaxing life
of the setting, and it works well.
This is a quick read.
I breezed through it in just a couple of days, but I was left satisfied.
If you can’t wait until summer, now is the perfect time to
dive into Murder on the Half Shell.
It’s the next best thing to sticking your toes in the sand for real.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for stopping by. In order to combat spam, I moderate most comments. I'll get to your comment as soon as I can.