Book Review AND GIVEAWAY: Missed Cue, by Lynn Slaughter

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

Victor Pesetsky lived in a sprawling Victorian on the outskirts of the city. He glowered at us when we arrived and showed him our search warrant. He held a miniature poodle in his arms who was feverishly barking. “It’s okay, Felicia.” He turned his gaze on us. “Strangers make her a bit nervous at first.”

“Any place she can go while we search?”

He sniffed. “I’ll take her to the backyard, and she can stay there while you’re here. How long is this going to take?”

"Maybe a few hours,” I said.

“All right. I’m going out then.” He handed me a card. “Please call my cell when you’re done.”

I nodded and asked him to point us to his kitchen. We walked across gleaming hardwood floors through high-ceilinged rooms filled with antiques and dance-related art. The framed Degas print of his Dancing Class was familiar, but I’d never seen the bronze sculpture of a ballerina in arabesque with her head thrown back in ecstasy. I wondered if the model had been his late wife.

The first step of finding a murderer is determining how the victim was actually murdered. Detective Caitlin O’Connor has a pretty good solve record, but for a death that occurred right in front of many witnesses, she’s having a hard time tying up loose ends.

Official synopsis:

When ballerina Lydia Miseau dies onstage in the final dress rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet, homicide detective Caitlin O’Connor is faced with the most complicated case of her career. She strongly suspects that someone murdered the ballerina, and her investigation uncovers several people close to the star who had reasons to kill her. But the autopsy reveals no apparent cause of death. If Lydia Miseau was murdered, who did it, and how?

Meantime, there’s Caitlin’s hot mess of a personal life. She has a bad habit of getting involved with married men. She knows it’s wrong, so why does she keep entangling herself in unhealthy relationships? She’s finally decided to go into therapy to find out.

Oh, Caitlin. She’s got a good reputation for doing her job well, but all of it could be lost in a moment between her continued affair with a married man she has to work with and personal complications with her partner. If she can’t get her own head on straight, she definitely can’t solve this case. It takes a full team to find how the victim died so they can then move on to finding who killed her.

The cast in this book was quite realistic—no one was just the role they were playing in the story, and who they were outside of their primary story parts was important too. While a few people had obvious motivations to kill the famous and gifted ballerina, was it still possible she just happened to have the bad luck to die unexpectedly? Caitlin and her partner really don’t think so.

The solution to the crime was not obvious and different parts of the story had to be connected to make it all fall into place. The story earned 3 out of 5 stars, and the ending left room for more developments and cases in Caitlin’s future.

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Becki Bayley is a Gemini, wife, and mother. She enjoys BBQ chips, HI-CHEW, and the sense of accomplishment that comes from a job well done. See how she spends a few more of her spare moments on Instagram, where she posts as PoshBecki.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a SIGNED COPY of Missed Cue!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Friday, January 12th, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be contacted the next day via email, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Missed Cue, by Lynn Slaughter