What I'm Reading Wednesday

I've been reading a murder mystery called Desert Rain by Jean Holbrook Matthews. It's actually been pretty creepy because right when there was a really tense part in the book complete with rain and lightning, it started to rain and lightning at my house! It really added to the suspenseful atmosphere, I'll tell you that.

The book starts off with Lexi Benson having to identify the body of her boss. It was so sad because we get the background of the murdered man and he was someone kind and compassionate in his business dealings and with his family. But with his death, there are quite a few things at his construction business that Lexi tries to take care of, but it isn't long before her own life is in danger.

The first half of this book was an unexpected delight with characters that have a lot of depth and a secondary cast that really adds to the layers of the mystery. I'm usually able to predict the murderer before it's revealed, but the author did a wonderful job of providing several possible suspects. I was a tiny bit disappointed that after such a stellar beginning the ending was more of a running down the suspect list to tell how, what and why they did. There was a lot of dialogue that just told the reader what happened instead of pulling the reader in to finish the experience of figuring it all out with the characters. The massive amount of detail included also slowed down the pacing and held the reader back from fully experiencing a taut, tense plot, but I admit I stayed up late reading to see who the villain was. There were a lot of great twists and turns! The main characters were drawn so that the reader will care about what happens to them, and they added a nice little romance to the story on top of the mystery. The author has a great talent for distraction and red herrings which is essential to a good mystery. A nice evening read!

You can get your copy here

Here's the back copy:

“LL’s been murdered. I had to ID his body about an hour ago. I’m not sure . . .” I took a deep breath to stop my jaw from trembling.

Identifying her boss’s body at the morgue wasn’t on Lexi Benson’s to-do list. She’s never been the type to go after adventure, and besides, she’s just his executive assistant. But with LL’s wife out of town, Lexi’s the only one the police trust.

But when mysterious incidents begin to threaten her life, Lexi realizes the murderer might be someone close to her. She’ll have to work together with the handsome detective to solve her mentor’s murder before she becomes the next victim.