Review by: Gregg E. Brickman

Joni Rodgers is an accomplished author who is known for character driven fiction.  She’s also stepped off the curb into the world of the Indie authors, which is where I encountered her book, Kill Smartie Breedlove.

Smartie Breedlove is a more than slightly whacky author with a past she’d just as soon keep secret.  She gleans information from the world around her and fashions it into her best selling stories.  When her friend Charma takes a dive off a high floor in a hotel and lands in the punchbowl at a fancy reception, Smartie is convinced it’s murder, but the coroner rules suicide.  Smartie carries her suspicions one step further, she’s convinced a divorce lawyer engineered Charma’s death along with the death of several other spouses of wealthy clients to avoid division of property.

Martin Shepard Hartigate is an investigator with the attorney’s firm.  A former police detective who left the force in disgrace, Shep has issues of his own.  But he is protective of Smartie, and not just because it’s his job.  Then they link up to solve the mystery and manage to leave some of their personal baggage behind in the process.

It took me a while to find the rhythm of the story.  The narrative is interspersed with Smartie thinking about the book she is working on and building the ongoing events into her fictional world.  It becomes clear that the division isn’t always distinct for Smartie.

Overall the story was very readable and held my attention.

Book Reviews, Mystery, Reading, Writers

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August 15, 2012

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