Kate Must Dance Fast to Find a Killer
I was happy when I learned that Lisa Q. Matthews had a new series coming out this year since I’d enjoyed the three mysteries she’d written a few years ago. The Jig is Up introduces us to a new community I’m looking forward to visiting again.
The book is set in the town of Shamrock, which has turned itself into an Irish themed touristy town. Naturally, the town goes all out every March for St. Patrick’s Day. However, Kate Buckley wasn’t planning to return home until she got a text from her younger sister that said Kate needed to come back as soon as possible. So Kate packs up her two daughters and heads to the family’s B & B.
Before Kate can find out why Colleen said Kate needed to come home, tragedy strikes. Kate and Colleen find the body of Deirdre, Colleen’s best friend. Deirdre was world famous for her Irish jig dancing, and she’d returned to Shamrock to take over her mother’s dance school. The question is, who would want to kill Deirdre? Kate finds herself pulled into the case. Can she figure it out?
I’ve got to admit, when I first heard this premise, I couldn’t quite believe that we haven’t seen a series set in an Irishy tourist town before. We got so many other themed towns in cozies. There are plenty of fun touches in this book that fit in with the theme that made me smile. Still, I felt like there were things that could have been a little more fleshed out to anchor me in the book. I’m sure that will come with more books in the series.
The book doesn’t waste any time at the beginning. It introduces us to Kate and her family and then we find Deirdre’s body. The pace from there was steady. I’ve got to say, I was impressed with how it handled a few things. In lesser hands, I would have been frustrated by what happened here, but in this case, it got me to keep reading.
We get to know the series regulars the best in this book, and I liked them. Again, we could use a bit more to flesh them out, but they are good for the first book in a series. I definitely want to visit them again. And this isn’t to take away from the suspects, who did their job of confusing me.
The Jig is Up gets this series off to a promising
start. I’m looking forward to dancing my
way into book two soon.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
Thanks so much, Mark, for reviewing The Jig is Up, and the kind words!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this one and agree about the surprising lack of Irishy tourist towns in cozies. This was a fun one though Colleen drove me absolutely batty!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review Mark. I have been looking forward to this book for quite a while. I just have to wait a bit longer for my library to get it into my eager hands.
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