Murder of a Mentor
I’m always looking for new, fun themes for cozy reads, and since I like music, the Darcy Gaughan Mysteries caught my eye. You see, Darcy runs a music store, and I thought that would make a fun setting, so I picked up the first, Record Store Reckoning.
Darcy has just returned home from a wonderful vacation. On her first day back at work, she makes a horrible discovery, the body of her boss and mentor in his office. The evidence seems to point to suicide, or at least that’s what the police think. Darcy doesn’t buy it for a minute and starts to investigate to learn the truth. Can she figure out what really happened? Or are the police right?
The book jumps into the story pretty quickly. We get a little background on Darcy first. Now, we needed to know this background on Darcy since it plays a huge part in establishing her character and some of the ways the story develops, but it felt a bit like a data dump. Still, I’m being a bit nitpicky here since we’re just talking about a couple pages.
Darcy’s investigation uncovers some interesting suspects, and I was left wondering just which one of them did it as I read. The story could have used a couple more clues, red herrings, or twists since I left the pacing was a little uneven, but it does build to a logical and wonderful climax. I really liked how that played out.
I hinted earlier that Darcy has an interesting background. She’s already overcome quite a bit when the story starts. I appreciated that about her. She is strong and determined, which serves her well in her quest for justice for a man who meant a lot to her.
I also really enjoyed the record store setting. Quite a variety of music gets name dropped here, which was fun. The other employees are fantastic, and I loved it when they were on the page. For that matter, the rest of the regulars are also fun, and the suspects were strong.
The victim, in this case, is someone that everyone loves. Well, almost everyone, obviously, or he wouldn’t be dead. I do enjoy it when an author can pull that off well, and that’s the case here. It is harder to give believable motives for someone who is good to be killed than someone who is obnoxious.
I read a physical copy of the book that I bought not too long after it was first published, and I found quite a few typos – mostly words that were inserted accidentally or had been left out accidentally. Normally, I don’t comment on that kind of thing, but it was persistent enough here to be annoying. The book was still readable, so don’t let that stop you from picking up the book. Hopefully, the ebook and subsequent printings have had these things fixed.
It will be interesting to see how Darcy’s journey progresses as the series goes along. Record Store Reckoning sets her up well and introduces us to a world I’m looking forward to revisiting.
Darcy sounds like a wonderful protagonist and this review makes me want to get to know her. There are already so many series I want to read and I'm never actively looking for new ones, but they always seem to find their way onto my TBR list anyway. This sounds like one of them. :-)
ReplyDeleteI love a record store setting and this sounds like a fun read. Too bad about the misprints and typos. I expect that in ARCs but not in a finished book.
ReplyDeleteI love the record store setting too. Since I have been looking for more cozies to read, I will give this one a try.
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