Thursday, June 6, 2019

Summer Reads: A Justified Murder by Jude Deveraux


AMAZON
Welcome to my first Summer Reads post of the 2019! And, yes, I'm well aware it's not official summer according the calendar, but the Mother Nature clearly has a different opinion on the matter.

Yesterday morning, I finished reading the novel A Justified Murder, which is the second installment in the new A Medlar Mystery series that started with last year's A Willing Murder. (Read my review here!) The series reminds me of the old murder mystery television series, such as Murder, She Wrote, Columbo, and Monk, but instead of a single main character there are three - novelist Sara Medlar, her niece Kate, and her unofficially adopted grandson, Jack Wyatt.

Set once again in the small town of Lachlan, Florida, the detective trio find themselves investigating the bizarre death of Janet Beeson, an elderly woman who had been shot, stabbed, and poisoned!

Sara only became involved in the case after the county sheriff asked her to take photos of the crime scene, and of course she brought along Kate and Jack. One would think they would just let the authorities investigate the murder, but after getting a taste of the crime fighting last year, the trio is itching to solve another mystery; despite the little fact that they originally vowed not to get involved in the first place.

I don't want to spoil too much of the plot, but lets just say the murder is linked to an old kidnapping case.

 

Final Thoughts

Jude Deveraux was an extremely popular novelist throughout the 1980s and 1990s with her romantic novels that centered around the Montgomery and Taggert families. Many of her fans were a bit surprised when changed genres with last year's A Willing Murder; though I for one enjoyed the first novel in the series. The sequel, A Justified Murder, has been sitting on my coffee table for awhile now. I believe I was sent a review copy back in early March, but I didn't get to it right away. I read  around 35 pages in April, but set the book aside to read another book I had checked out at the library. Fast Forward nearly a month later, where I picked up A Justified Murder again and continued reading exactly where I had left off. I finished the book within a few days.

Overall, I enjoyed A Justified Murder, though it's not quite as good as the first installment in the series. The plot is more complicated this time around with several intriguing twists and turns. As for the characters, there are way too many new ones in this story, as well as one too many red herrings. Despite a few flaws, it's still a decent read.

FYI: While A Justified Murder is standalone novel, I recommend reading the first novel first to fully understand the three main characters - Sara, Kate, and Jack.
*Note: I received a complimentary copy for review purposes.
All opinions are my own.