Review: Suddenly Deadly by Lo Monaco

 

Genre: Detective Mystery

Description:

“Terry is hired by Naydeen, to find her cousin, Wayne. Naydeen’s brother, Artie, has been murdered and she needs to tell Wayne what happened. Artie’s lover, Sean, an old friend of Terry’s, has been arrested for Artie’s murder and begs Terry to find the real killer. He says the police don’t know that Artie had a carry-on bag full of money in his closet and he’s scared silly thinking that it was money from drugs.

When Terry finds Wayne, he’s terrified and says Naydeen only hired Terry to find him so Naydeen could kill him.

Can Terry find who killed Artie? Or is Sean really guilty? Has Naydeen used Terry to find Wayne to kill him?

Things become even further tangled by Terry's growing feelings toward Wayne and the questioning of her own abilities to unravel a convoluted and confusing case of deceit, betrayal and death.”

Author:

A Californian who lived in Italy for 16 years, has worked as an opera singer as well as a fingerprint technician for the local sheriff and a group counselor for juvenile offenders, Lo Monaco has lived an interesting life thus far. This is the third installment in the Terry Strong, PI, mystery series.

Appraisal:

An engaging mystery that kept me guessing to the end. Terry Strong starts out with one goal, to find Wayne, the cousin of her client Naydeen. She wants Terry to find him to let him know that Naydeen’s brother, Artie, was murdered by his lover. Terry realizes Sean, the accused murderer, is an old friend she’d lost touch with. Before long she’s questioning whether Sean is actually the murderer and wondering whether her client is telling the truth about what is going on. It isn’t long before Terry’s no longer trying to solve the mystery she was hired to (that didn’t take long to nail down), but instead trying to determine who killed Artie. She doesn’t lack in viable suspects and at some point I thought every one of them was the most likely, starting with Sean when we first find out about the murder and that he’s in custody, to the actual culprit. I don’t think it is a spoiler to say Terry finds the guilty party, but getting there keeps her guessing and will keep you guessing and entertained.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

This is the third book in this series, but it stands alone. I didn’t feel I was not following the story in spite of not having read the first two in the series.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 60-65,000 words