Murder of a Real Bad Boy - Denise Swanson

Murder of a Real Bad Boy
A Scumble River Mystery
Denise Swanson
Signet

Mystery - Cozy

School psychologist Skye Denison finds herself in a unique position on a Friday afternoon. She doesn’t particularly want to go home. Since she broke up with her boyfriend and moved into a house that’s being renovated, there isn’t much waiting at home for her. Certainly not completed renovations. The hunky contractor she hired, Beau Hamilton, rarely finishes anything; and when he does, it’s wrong. But the man is just so handsome and charming that she can’t quite make herself fire him.

That’s about to change, though. When she arrives home to find that literally nothing has been done all day, Skye is furious and ready to fire Beau. There’s one small problem: when she finds him, he’s mortally wounded. Since her house is outside the city limits, technically, the county sheriff should have jurisdiction. That would be one Buck Peterson, who has it in for Skye and her family. The city police chief, Wally Boyd, on the other hand, has feelings for Skye. With one man ready to convict her, and the other trying to protect her, Skye realizes that her safest bet is to do a little investigating of her own. It doesn’t take long to find out that Beau was far from the charmer he appeared to be, and left a string of people behind him who had reason to want him dead.

If you’ve read previous installments of this series, you know that it’s all about the charms (and the warts) of life in a small town. In Scumble River, everyone pretty much knows everyone else, and there aren’t a whole lot of secrets, once you start digging. The narrative moves along quickly, and there are plenty of interesting characters on all sides of the issue. This is great for a fun, quick read.

Rating: 6
August 2006
ISBN# 0-451-21828-0 (paperback)