Peace, Love and Murder (A Bo Forrester mystery)

Author: Nancy Holzner

Type: Kindle ebook

Genre: Mystery/Suspense

First Published: Hard Cover Aug 2009/Kindle ebook April 2011

First Line: "It was Monday morning, and Carl and Ronnie were bickering in the back of my cab."

Synopsis: Bo Forrester was raised by his hippy parents on a commune in northern New York state. When he enlisted in the army his parents broke contact with him and he hasn't seen them since. Now, twenty years later, Bo has returned to Rhodes, NY hoping for a quiet life and the ability to reconnect with his parents.

Bo takes a job as a cab driver to make ends meet but his day goes from blaw to bad when, on a routine run, he finds a dead body in the trunk of his cab. All of a sudden he has cops, specifically the obsessive Deputy Trudy Hauser, who is out to prove that Bo committed the murder of the wealthy philanthropist. Bo finds himself on the run and takes matters into his own hands to prove his innocence before the cops catch up with him.

My Thoughts: This was a good read with lots of twists and turns. Bo was an interesting main character that brought an off-beat feel to this book. He has his hippy upbringing and some baggage with his parents (including his quirky name) but he seems like a believable and likable main character.

That being said I didn't connect as well as I would have liked with, Bo or Detective Trudy Hauser. Bo was a unique main character but it was his interactions with Deputy Trudy Hauser that I just didn't buy. It felt like she jumped on his case with a little too much gusto and anger. Also, her interactions with Bo, specifically later on, felt forced, abrupt and too obvious for me. I could totally predict that she'd have a change of heart ... and she did. Their relationship did distract me a bit from the overall momentum of the mystery.

BUT, I've got to say that the suspense and 'whodunnit-ness' (oh my English teachers would cringe at that word!) was really good!! I think I suspected at least 4 different people (and was adamant that they were the culprit) only to find that Holzner threw me a few curve balls to throw off my initial ideas.

Overall, this is a good start to a new series and it'll be interesting to see where the author takes Bo next.

My Rating: 3.5/5 stars