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.
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