Ginny Aiken wrote "Design on a Crime" as the first of (so far) three books in the "Deadly Décor Mystery" series. It is about a young interior designer who keeps getting involved in murder, without any doing of her own.
In this book, Haley Farrell soon turns out to be the main suspect, and the story revolves around her trying to find out who really did it so that she can present the solution to the detective who seems to be so keen to pin it all on her.
As a character, Haley is not the most likeable of young women (at least not to me). She is prickly and blunt to the point of rudeness, and her troubles with something that happened to her four years ago and the consequent loss of her faith take up a little too much room.
Speaking of faith - if you manage to skip the religious bits, you're in for a light read; light, but at the same time keeping you wanting to find out who did it, not so much for Haley's sake but because you want to know how the author is going to explain everything. The solution is not obvious, there are several red herrings, and the constant cropping up of another character wherever Haley goes seems to be too much of a coincidence.
Anyway, the religious aspect in this story is so big that it should have been classified as "Christian Fiction" or something like that; then, I am sure, a lot of those who gave the book bad reviews would never have read it in the first place.
I am not going to give it that bad of a review, because it was entertaining enough for my train rides to and from work, and although the writing itself was far from brilliant, it was better than some I've read in the past. I do wonder, though, whether Ginny Aiken is on a contract with Starbucks coffee - the brand is mentioned every time someone has coffee, or even just thinks about having coffee, as are other unnecessary mentions of brand names for dog food, sweets and other things.
Not a waste of time, but I'm afraid I would have considered it a waste of money, had I paid for it.
Well, certainly a BIG change from your last book, I imagine! I like "cozy" mysteries. Some are more cozy than others. But I don't know that I would enjoy this one that much. I like historical mysteries and ones set in unusual (to me) locations. Do you know the website "Stop, You're Killing me"? I find a lot of good books there, but not that often free.
ReplyDeleteA big change it was indeed, Kristi! Thank you for the recommendation, I had not heard of the website before and will definitely have a look.
DeleteSo, she has no taste in coffee either? It sounds like a realistic plot - similar to Midsomer Murders??
ReplyDeleteAgreed on the coffee! Well, at least Midsomer Murders has fun and quirkiness in its plot. This book has not, I'm afraid.
DeleteYou almost have me curious about those religious bits rather than the rest of the story now ;) ... I just sent a whole bunch of free contemporary Kindle downloads back to the Cloud unread however (feeling a need to "declutter" the number of titles and authors unknown to me) so I think I'll give this one a miss (having enough on my waiting list at the moment).
ReplyDeleteYou're not missing out on a "Must Read" there, Monica!
DeleteI like to try authors unknown to me. Sometimes I'm in for a rather pleasant surprise.
I tend to avoid books with red herrings, so I read very few murder mystery books. I just don't see the point of being led around the houses. The author doesn't want you to guess the ending, so you can't even work it out (well I can't anyway). I just get cross! But enjoyed your review.
ReplyDeleteI actually get cross rather when a plot is too obvious. With so many books you can guess from page 1 who is going to end up with whom, etc. It's trying to work out what is going to happen, and to see how the characters arrrive at their decisions and so on, that makes an enjoyable read for me.
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