Kate Collins's new mystery sleuth Abby Knight has found her way onto my shelves. My wife and I love watching BBC movies (Foyle's War, Murder in Suburbia, and the new Mystery Woman series) together and trying to figure out whodunit. My wife doesn't care for all the blood and violence, though I can occasionally take her to something with fistfights and car chases. The Abby Knight series, of which this is the first book, gives us a whole new bunch of books to read and talk about.
The characters are thin, but they're supposed to be. These are people who you know enough about to guess the rest and they become real in that respect. There's not a lot of history here, but there's plenty of relationships that make a nice family to come home to from book to book.
Abby is in her late twenties and a law school dropout, which means she has the whole disappointment riff going on with Mom. She ended up buying a flower shop, Bloomer's Flower Shop, from her best friend, Lottie, who then proceeded to keep working there, so that's kind of confusing in some ways. And she's got an enternally stiff upper lip Brit named Grace watching her back and in general acting as a nanny. (Imagine Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred, only dressed in really good shoes! On second thought, maybe not. But that's how she behaves.) For strong arm backup, she's got Lottie's kids, who thoughtfully turned out boys of prodigious size.
Together, these three form the chief unofficial investigative arm of the amateur sleuth series. The chemistry they exhibit together is great and promises lots of entertaining adventures to come.
Of course, being a cozy mystery, Abby also has to have a romantic interest. It's a little confusing in this first book because Abby seems bound and determined to set her cap for the young district attorney. But it's local bar owner, Marco Salvare, an ex-cop turned private investigator, who really hits Abby's romance radar screen. They work well together and end up being a delight to watch in action. Not quite Stephanie Plum and Ranger, but close.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net , which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States, and to Boston.com. Nice work!