Friday, May 17, 2013

Moving Is Murder by Sara Rosett


First Line: Light bled across the horizon, but it was still night below the towering pines where the figure in black slipped up the driveway toward the slumbering house and slithered under the parked minivan.

Being an Air Force wife can mean a lot of moves in a short period of time-- like four times in five years. This time Ellie Avery has to do it with a newborn baby during a heat wave. Fortunately Ellie is a professional organizer, but one thing she and her husband Mitch didn't count on with all their careful planning is moving into an off-base neighborhood that's filled with fellow Air Force families. They were really wanting to get away from that, but it's just not going to happen.  To top things off, Ellie finds the body of neighborhood activist Cass Vincent whose death-- police say-- was due to wasp stings, to which she was fatally allergic. But things don't add up to Ellie, and she begins to conduct her own investigation to find out what really happened to Cass.

Ellie is a likable young woman, but following her around can exhaust you. Trying to get settled in a new area, get acquainted with new people, get everything unpacked and in their proper places, keep her husband, baby, and the officers' wives happy all during a heat wave? Definitely not an easy assignment! Thankfully Ellie's organizing skills help make a few things smooth sailing because she's a natural-born nosy kind of person whose amateur investigative techniques are very crude and tend to put her in unnecessary danger.

This is a first book, and it shows a bit. The plot is slow to take off, but once it does, it fully engages interest. Ellie and Mitch are really the only two fully fleshed characters, although Rosett has set up some secondary characters well for future books. The appeal of this book is Ellie (who's bright and funny) and the insight it gives into the life of a military wife. I would also recommend Rosett's organizational tips for anyone who'll be moving: they're concise and chock-full of good sense. This first book and the series as a whole shows a lot of promise, and I'm looking forward to reading more about Ellie Avery.


Moving Is Murder by Sara Rosett
ISBN: 9780758213372
Kensington © 2007
Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages

Cozy Mystery, #1 Mom Zone mystery
Rating: C+/B-
Source: Purchased at Barnes and Noble

4 comments:

  1. Cathy - Oh, another debut - I like that you include debuts in your write-ups. And this one sounds like it's got a solid cast of characters worth developing.

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    1. There's still a high percentage of the "Must Read In Order" in me, Margot! ;-)

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  2. Hmmm. A figure in black slipped and slithered - kind of obvious that something bad is going to happen, isn't it? Oh well, it sounds interesting anyway. Always open to a new crime fiction writer.

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    1. Several books in the series, which bodes well for its quality, too!

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