Sunday, November 2, 2008

Death of a Garage Sale Newbie, a review

Summary: What could Ginger the baby boomer, Kindra the college student, Suzanne the pregnant mother of three, and Mary Margret the silver-haired real-estate agent possibly have in common? Who would’ve guessed…a passion for garage sales!

This motley crew forms the Bargain Hunters Network–bonding while clipping coupons, attending half-price sales, and scouting clearance racks in their hometown of Three Horses, Montana. But when one of the four turns up missing, these shop-till-you-drop women must set their bargain hunting aside to take up an entirely new venture altogether–solving a crime.

As the three amateur sleuths retrace their friend’s fateful steps, they discover clues that lead them to suspect her murder is linked to an unusual garage sale purchase made on the morning of her death. But when their search unearths a disturbing secret that’s been carefully concealed for over twenty years, the women are drawn into a dark underworld filled with bribery, greed, and deception. With determined criminals who will stop at nothing to keep their secret safe, will these fiscally conscious females end up paying the ultimate price? (- WaterBrook Press)


I came across Death of a Garage Sale Newbie by Sharon Dunn on LibraryThing. It was listed as a suggested read for something I'd read earlier this year. Do I remember which one? No-I've checked out a bunch of those suggested reads lately! Anyway, I was in the mood for a quickish mystery, so off to the library I went to check out this book.

It started out decently, three friends who love to bargain shop and their 4th friend is missing, soon to be found dead with an arrow in her back. I have to admit, I think this is the first murder mystery that I've read that the murder weapon is a bow. Anyway. The story continues on, with a police officer who is struggling to connect with her son and keep him out of trouble, an older lady who is missing her husband who passed away 15 years ago, and the grieving 3 friends. They've determined that the reason the friend was killed had to have been important, so they go through the final garage sale purchases of the deceased and try to put the clues together. While I enjoyed this book, I just found it a bit too forced. Perhaps I've just read too many other mysteries. I wanted to find out the ending, but at the same time, I didn't necessarily care if I did. It almost seemed as though there was just too much going on in this book. It seemed as though every character had an issue. Not that that's horrible, but I wasn't expecting that. I wanted a light mystery.

I don't know that I'll continue reading the Bargain Hunters Mysteries series or not. The title of her next book, Death of a Six Foot Teddy Bear, does sound intreguing. I cannot say that I'll rush right over to check it out though. Perhaps when I'm at a lull for books in my TBR pile I will.

1 comment:

Kathleen said...

I reviewed Death of a Six-Foot Teddy Bear by Sharon Dunn on my blog :)