Book Review: A Scape Goat for Murder by Jacqueline Vick (Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic Mysteries #6)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Fun with Frankie; compelling mystery

Cons: Plot leaves several whys dangling in rush to end

The Bottom Line:

Fiancé is hurt

With only a goat witness

Rushed ending is weak

Frankie Butts Heads with Another Four-Legged Witness

One thing I appreciate about the Frankie Chandler, Pet Psychic Mysteries is that each book features a different animal that Frankie must try to gather clues from.  A Scape Goat for Murder features, you guessed it, a goat.  And the case has very personal stakes for Frankie.

When the series started, Frankie Chandler was a pet behavioral specialist who pretended to be a psychic.  That is until she actually started communicating with animals.  That ability has gotten her involved in several murders, and now, in book six, she’s a few weeks away from marrying Detective Martin Bowers.

Frankie’s life takes an unexpected turn when she gets a phone call from Martin’s partner.  Martin has been in an accident while investigating an old case.  No one quite knows what he was doing on the hillside where he fell.  And no one will talk about what is going on.  Even the doctor won’t update Frankie on Martin’s condition.

So Frankie does the only thing she can.  She starts to investigating what lead up to Martin’s accident.  She finds the location – which happens to be next to a goat farm.  And one of the goats seems to have witnessed what happened.  Can Frankie bribe the information out of him?  What do the images he sends even mean?

In case it wasn’t obvious before, these are comedic mysteries.  I didn’t even get into Martin’s two sisters who are staying with Frankie and keep hindering/helping as she investigates.  I laughed plenty of times as the book went on at their interactions and at some of the situations that Frankie got into.  I will say that some of the interactions did feel repetitive before the book was over.  I was expecting a bit more of a resolution to this particular subplot.

The mystery started out strong with plenty of complications to keep us engaged.  However, the book rushed to wrap things up.  In that rush, a rather big part of the story was left dangling.  Yes, we get the who did it.  But the why was completely abandoned.  And I need my whys answered, too, not just the who done it.

I did enjoy getting to spend more time with Frankie and Martin.  Some of the other characters we’ve met along the way are involved, but in smaller parts.  In fact, this was really about Frankie and one of Martin’s sisters more than anyone else.  But this allowed us time to see some growth in Frankie, which I liked.

Fans of the series will be glad they picked up A Scape Goat for Murder even if it is a weak entry overall in the series.

I can see you wanting to check out the rest of the Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic Mysteries.