Seems like the latest trend these days for group or team building activities is what is called Locked Rooms. A crime has been perpetrated within the confines of a locked room. The groups task is to find out what happened, solve the crime and answer all the questions of the crime scene. Seems like everyone these days thinks because they watch enough television crime shows, they can solve it as quickly as a 60 minute episode. But we all know that is not the case.
In Murder in the Dog Days by P.M. Carlson, Maggie Ryan is once again called out to a crime scene involving a reporter who at the last minute decided to forgo the plans with his family and finish up on a story while they all headed out to a summer picnic. Unbeknown to them, when they returned, they find Dale Colby, Olivia's colleague dead in a pool of his own blood in a locked room. So what happened? Who did it? What was the motive? Is this going to be the last of such murders?
Fans of P.M.Carlson's series, Maggie Ryan, will undoubtedly love this one. This is the 6th book in the series and takes Maggie back into what she does best, piecing together clues and trying to figure out just who did it. Readers will be tasked to do the same and hopefully figure it out before the end. Since this was my first time picking up a Maggie Ryan book, I wasn't sure what to expect. The one thing I can tell you is that readers are supposed to know more about Maggie as I am sure the subsequent novels invite the reader into a more in depth knowledge of her techniques and her own history that brings her to solve each of these cases. For me, this one just didn't make me want to finish it all in one sitting. It was a kind a book I could put down for a bit, and pick it back up and try to re-engage in the plot line and crime solving. For me, that's not a good sign.
I did receive Murder in the Dog Days by P.M. Carlson compliments of Crum Creek Press and Partners in Crime Tours. This book was 274 pages which if the story doesn't maintain the readers attention enough to keep them wanting to finish, it means elements are missing. The need to care for the characters or victim. I really wanted this one to work for me, because I love the idea of a woman detective with the stomach to handle to gore but also the intelligence and ability to handle dealing with the people she is likely to encounter. For me, this just have those. I would rate this one a 3.5 out of 5 stars in my opinion. It may be that one needs to read the previous 5 to understand more than I seemed to be getting out of this one and even took the entire day off of work to sit down and read it. Unfortunately it just didn't keep my attention and thus the reason for my rating.
For more information about Murder in the Dog Days, P.M. Carlson or where you can pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:
To read more reviews on Murder in the Dog Days, please visit the following Partners in Crime Book Tour participants.
| Murder in the Dog Days by P.M. Carlson
Murder in the Dog Days
by P.M. Carlson
September 1-30, 2017 Book Tour
Synopsis:
On a sweltering Virginia day in 1975, reporter Olivia Kerr, her husband Jerry Ryan, his very pregnant sister Maggie and her family decide to have a beach picnic. Olivia invites her colleague Dale Colby and his family to join them. At the last minute, Dale decides to stay home to pursue an important story. But when the beach-goers return, they find Dale lifeless in a pool of blood inside his locked office.
Police detective Holly Schreiner leads the investigation, battling Maggie—and demons of her own.
Don't Miss These Great Reviews:
"An ingeniously plotted, fair-play, locked-room mystery, one of the best we've encountered." — Tom and Enid Schantz, The Denver Post"A dandy locked room murder…The investigation is a dangerous one… [the] solution both surprising and satisfying" — A Suitable Job for a Woman
"A satisfying, fast-paced whodunit that also explores a range of social issues, especially the violence of war and its aftermath." — Cynthia R. Benjamins, Fairfax Journal
“[Maggie Ryan] has been a role model for women since the beginning and I loved watching her merge marriage and children with her talent for solving mysteries!” — Margaret Maron
Book Details:
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Published by: The Mystery Company / Crum Creek Press
Publication Date: April 2014
Number of Pages: 271
ISBN13: 978-1932325379
Series: Maggie Ryan and Nick O'Connor #6
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | Goodreads
Love this Video Chat Featuring Murder in the Dog Days:
Read an excerpt:
“I don’t understand!” Donna Colby cried out. Her self-control cracked. She reached toward Holly in appeal, tears starting. “It was bolted! How could anyone—even if Dale let them in, they couldn’t bolt it again after they—”
“Yes, Mrs. Colby.” Holly broke in, firm and reassuring, to deflect the outburst. “We’ll check into it. You can depend on it.”
‘Thank you,” said Donna with a little choking sound.
“Now, what did you do when you realized the door was bolted?”
“Well, he usually takes a nap. I thought maybe he was asleep.” Donna Colby was trying to revert to her numbed monotone again, but a tremor underlay her words. “Then Maggie went to look in the window and came running back in and said hurry up, we had to get the door open. So she did, and—” She stopped. The next part was the unspeakable, Holly knew. Donna Colby turned her face back to the pink flower on the back of the sofa, tracing the outline with a forefinger. “All that blood,” she murmured. “I just don’t… Why?”
“I know, Mrs. Colby.” Holly tried to keep her voice soothing in the face of the incomprehensible. A husband and father lay twisted in the den. Why? Tell me why. And the others, so many others. A flash of reds at the back of her eyes. A blue-green stench. A tiny whispered beat, ten, eleven. Twelve. No more. Hey, cut the bullshit, Schreiner. Just get the details. Ain’t no time to wonder why, whoopee we’re all gonna die. Holly flipped to a new page, keeping her voice colorless. “What did you do when you got the door open?”
“We all ran in—I don’t remember, it was so—I couldn’t—the blood. Maggie went to him. Sent Olivia to call an ambulance. Told me to keep the kids out, take them to the kitchen.”
Holly noted it down. This Maggie sounded like a real take-charge type. “Okay. And then what?”
“I don’t remember much. She made me leave, take care of the kids.”
“What was she doing?”
“I don’t know. There was so much…” The word escaped Donna and she stared at Holly in mute terror before finding it again, with an almost pitiful triumph. “Confusion. The men came back. Maggie will tell you,” she added hopefully, trying to be helpful. All her life, probably, being nice had kept her out of trouble. But now she’d hit the big trouble, and Holly knew that no weapons, even niceness, could help now.
* * *
Excerpt from Murder in the Dog Days by P.M. Carlson. Copyright © 2017 by P.M. Carlson. Reproduced with permission from P.M. Carlson. All rights reserved.
“Yes, Mrs. Colby.” Holly broke in, firm and reassuring, to deflect the outburst. “We’ll check into it. You can depend on it.”
‘Thank you,” said Donna with a little choking sound.
“Now, what did you do when you realized the door was bolted?”
“Well, he usually takes a nap. I thought maybe he was asleep.” Donna Colby was trying to revert to her numbed monotone again, but a tremor underlay her words. “Then Maggie went to look in the window and came running back in and said hurry up, we had to get the door open. So she did, and—” She stopped. The next part was the unspeakable, Holly knew. Donna Colby turned her face back to the pink flower on the back of the sofa, tracing the outline with a forefinger. “All that blood,” she murmured. “I just don’t… Why?”
“I know, Mrs. Colby.” Holly tried to keep her voice soothing in the face of the incomprehensible. A husband and father lay twisted in the den. Why? Tell me why. And the others, so many others. A flash of reds at the back of her eyes. A blue-green stench. A tiny whispered beat, ten, eleven. Twelve. No more. Hey, cut the bullshit, Schreiner. Just get the details. Ain’t no time to wonder why, whoopee we’re all gonna die. Holly flipped to a new page, keeping her voice colorless. “What did you do when you got the door open?”
“We all ran in—I don’t remember, it was so—I couldn’t—the blood. Maggie went to him. Sent Olivia to call an ambulance. Told me to keep the kids out, take them to the kitchen.”
Holly noted it down. This Maggie sounded like a real take-charge type. “Okay. And then what?”
“I don’t remember much. She made me leave, take care of the kids.”
“What was she doing?”
“I don’t know. There was so much…” The word escaped Donna and she stared at Holly in mute terror before finding it again, with an almost pitiful triumph. “Confusion. The men came back. Maggie will tell you,” she added hopefully, trying to be helpful. All her life, probably, being nice had kept her out of trouble. But now she’d hit the big trouble, and Holly knew that no weapons, even niceness, could help now.
* * *
Excerpt from Murder in the Dog Days by P.M. Carlson. Copyright © 2017 by P.M. Carlson. Reproduced with permission from P.M. Carlson. All rights reserved.
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