Review: Lauren Carr - It's Murder, My Son

Lauren Carr - It's Murder, My Son (Mac Faraday #1)

• Pub. Date: June 23, 2010

• Publisher: CreateSpace
• Format: Paperback 288pp
• Genre: Mystery
• Age Range: Adult
• ISBN-13: 9781452819433

What started out as the worst day of Mac Faraday's life would end up being a new beginning. After a messy divorce hearing, the last person that Mac wanted to see was another lawyer. Yet, this lawyer wore the expression of a child bursting to tell his secret. This covert would reveal Mac as heir to undreamed of fortunes, and lead him to the birthplace of America's Queen of Mystery and an investigation that will unfold like one of her famous mystery novels. Soon after she moves to her new lakefront home in Spencer, Maryland, multi-millionaire Katrina Singleton learns that life in an exclusive community is not all good. For some unknown reason, a strange man calling himself "Pay Back" begins stalking her. When Katrina is found strangled all evidence points to her terrorist, who is nowhere to be found. Three months later the file on her murder is still open with only vague speculations from the local police department when Mac Faraday, sole heir to his unknown birth mother's home and fortune, moves into the estate next door. Little does he know as he drives up to Spencer Manor that he is driving into a closed gate community that is hiding more suspicious deaths than his DC workload as a homicide detective. With the help of his late mother's journal, this retired cop puts all his detective skills to work to pick up where the local investigators have left off to follow the clues to Katrina's killer.

Big thanks to the author for mailing me the physical copy of this novel. Here is my honest review:

I enjoyed the mystery behind this novel. It was predictable and unpredictable all at the same time. The initial murder created the mystery, but then several other people ended up dead and Mac had to figure it out. Speaking of Mac..

He's just gotten divorced and lost his job, so when he finds out that his biological mother has died and left him $270,000,000 he's just fine. He moves into her house and meets Archer, his mother's female book editor who stays in the house too, and Gnarly, the genius German Shepherd. David, his half brother, comes along, and he's a police officer who helps him figure out the murders. It gets very convoluted after that. And there wasn't enough romance in there for me! Just sayin'.

What I liked:

• The mystery. It was fun trying to put the puzzle pieces together to figure out whodunit.
  
• The writing. While it wasn't spectacular, the writing makes it clear that Lauren Carr knows how to write a novel.
  
• The complexity. Lots happened! Each event seemed like it could be linked to a different person, so guessing whodunit was hard.

What I didn't like:

• Difficult to keep track. It got so convoluted that I had a difficult time keeping track of who was living, who was dead, who had a job, who was related to whom, etc etc.
  
• I wasn't thrilled to see that people were referred to as "that." People are WHOs, not THATs! Big pet peeve.
• Not enough romance. I wanted a love story. I know that not all books have one of these, and I'm learning that that's okay! :o) There's a bit of romance, but nothing close to what I'm used to.

Bottom line: This is an unpredictable, decent mystery.

Rating:
3/5 book sharks

Thanks again to the author for sending me this novel!