BOOK REVIEW: DYING TO READ by LORENA MCCOURTNEY ~ The Self-Taught Cook™

Dying to Read
By

Lorena McCourtney
978-0-8007-2158-9
$14.99
Paperback
320 pages
Pub Date: August 2012

Synopsis . . .

Cate Kinkaid is just dipping her toe into the world of private investigating until one of the many résumés she has floating around lands her a real job. All she has to do is determine that a particular woman lives at a particular address. Simple, right? When the big and brooding house happens to contain a dead body, this routine PI job turns out to be anything but simple. Is Cate in over her head?

Author Bio . . .

Lorena McCourtney is the award-winning author of dozens of novels, including Invisible (which won the Daphne du Maurier Award from Romance Writers of America), In Plain Sight, On the Run, and Stranded. She resides in Oregon.

Reader Review. . .

Cate Kinkaid is ...ummm....going through a career crisis. She always intended to be a teacher, but after graduating from college with a degree in education, she discovered that she just isn't a good teacher. She has had some interesting jobs since then, but nothing permanent. While waiting for something to turn up, she has accepted an offer from her uncle to work in his PI firm. Nothing too exciting; just an address confirmation. But when the address confirmation turns up a dead body and a long list of suspects, Cate finds her temp position to be more exciting than she ever imagined.

Yay! This "cozy little mystery" turned out to be good! Certain phrases often worry me, and that's one of them. And to perfectly honest, I often worry about Christian fiction. Anyone who has read my reviews in the past already knows that, but I just have to say it; in the past, authors have had a hard time combining Christian values with either romance, murder, or dishonesty. They usually went heavy handed with the values and soft-soaped the "bad stuff". NEWS FLASH: It's a real world and bad stuff happens. So, when an author comes along like Ms. McCourtney and manages to realistically portray Christians in a real world, I'm happy. I know it's still fiction, and it's still a "cozy" mystery, but it's not too cozy. And that's the way I like my mysteries.

5 stars

“Available August 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Revell. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.