Death of a Gladiator
Caleb Wygal’s Myrtle Beach Mysteries are yet another series I fully intended to return to earlier. Too many books to keep up with, right? I did grab several books in the series when the ebooks were on sale last year, and I finally sat down to read Death Washes Ashore, the second in the series.
One morning Clark Thomas is awakened by a text from one of the detectives in town requesting his presence at a crime scene. The body of Connor West has washed up on the local state beach. Connor was the star of one of the local tourist attractions, a gladiator themed dinner and show.
Even after Clark is warned away from the case, he can’t help but dig into Connor’s life and his work at the Gladiator Games Dinner Show. With a face from his past as his way into the lives of those Clark wants to interview, can he figure out what happened?
Yes, my biggest issue with the book was right there in the first sentence of the teaser. There was no reason for Clark to be called to the scene of the crime. He owns a bookstore. He’s solved one murder, at this point. I’ve got to say, it felt like the police swung the other way for much of the book, being harsher with him than necessary to keep him from investigating. It’s a tension in cozy mysteries, and I’m usually quite willing to go along with however the author chooses to handle it, but this didn’t quite work for me.
But if you can let that go, you’ll find a good mystery here. I really enjoyed the behind the scenes look at the fictional show. I enjoyed imagining exactly how this show would work. And it provides us with plenty of suspects and some good twists along the way. I was always engaged, wanting to find out more about what would happen next. The climax made sense, and I appreciated how Clark went about things.
Like with the first book, I did feel that the writing could have used a little polish. Most of the time it was fine, but there were occasional sentences that were off. I’m sure I would have similar writing moments if I were trying to write a story, so I get it. But it did stop me when I ran across them.
We are getting to know the characters better. Many of the supporting characters still stayed in the background, but we saw a different side of Clark here, and I appreciated that. There were a few others that got more page time, and I enjoyed their scenes. The suspects were strong enough to keep me guessing as I read.
This book does spend a little time on the cliffhanger from the previous book. In fact, that’s where we begin in this book. There isn’t a ton of advancement to that ongoing storyline, but that’s what the next book is for, right?
My critiques aside, I am glad I made the time to visit Clark again. Death Washes Ashore is a fun second book.
Book your stay with the rest of the Myrtle Beach Mysteries.
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.