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Stay Tuned for Murder
Talk Radio Mystery Series , #3
Mary Kennedy

Obsidian/Penguin
January 2011 / ISBN 9780451232359
Mystery/Amateur Sleuth
Amazon

Reviewed by Laura Hinds

Stay Tuned for Murder is the third entry in Mary Kennedy’s Talk Radio Mystery series featuring clinical psychologist turned radio talk show host Maggie Walsh. This time, Maggie has a recurrent guest: a self-promoting psychic named Madame Chantel who stakes her claim to fame on the “fact” that she talks with the dead.

The story gets off to a bit of a rocky start with the only real event in the first two chapters being evidence that Madame Chantel may not be all she claims to be; but things pick up speed quickly and a fast-paced story continues throughout most of the book.

A séance is held at the local historical society, and Chantel is the star of the show. She issues a dire warning to those who attend, and the very next morning there is news of a murder directly related to the historical society. After another body is found, Maggie, having had some success in solving crimes before, puts on her investigator’s cap and sets out to find the killer. Is it possible that Madame Chantel is, after all, the afterlife communicator she claims to be?

Her friend and talk show producer, Vera Mae, is Maggie’s sidekick, and I found their relationship to be true to life and smartly written. There are other characters in the book, of course, but none as developed as Maggie and Vera Mae. Perhaps these others, namely Maggie's mother and Maggie's roommate, have been utilized more in the previous two entries in the series (Reel Murder and Dead Air), but I wished there had been more scenes with them in this story.

All in all, I did enjoy the book a great deal and recommend it to mystery readers who like a fast read that is well written. If you’ve read the previous books in the series, I suspect you’ll like this even more than I did. I do plan to keep up with the series, because the author did a good job and has intrigued me enough to interest me in catching up on the first books and following along with future installments.

  

Reviewed 2011
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