| |
Sammy Young
Piano Tuner Mystery – Book I
Kate Lucky
Seven Owl Press
10 April 2016 / ASIN: B01E4C0S7Y (ebook)
Mystery / Cozy
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
|
| |
Sammy
Young is a piano tuner in the small town of Rooks Creek in Illinois.
One of her customers is the church of St. Xaviers, but they
are not keen on paying her bills. One afternoon she gets into
an altercation with arrogant Father Mick Shaunessy and storms
out, forgetting her tuner’s equipment. Returning next
morning, she finds Father Mick stuffed into the piano, dead.
This makes her a suspect, and soon nobody wants her to enter
their homes to tune their pianos. Facing ruin, Sammy decides
to turn detective herself.
There is a lot to enjoy in the debut to this fun new series.
Firstly, I haven’t read anything with a piano tuner as
protagonist and originality is always a plus in my opinion.
I have a tin ear for music so hoped there wasn’t going
to be too much information about pianos and there wasn’t,
very little in fact. This series also omits two of my least
favorite cozy clichés - sexy detectives and wacky relations
- earning further points in its favor. There is a lot to amuse,
plenty of suspects and some entertaining characters including
a tattoo artist, garage owner, card playing mobster, creepy
caretaker and cake eating church secretary. There is something
happening on every page- and this time the old formula of having
the protagonist blunder into danger is played for a laugh- which
works better as it is funny. I hope some of the characters will
return in subsequent books, which I will certainly want to read.
A lively and original new series.
|
|
