Edited for Deathby Michele Drier

Review by John Hansen

Blurb:

Amy Hobbes never expected to solve anything tougher than a crossword puzzle. When she left her job as a journalist in Southern California, she planned to give the adrenaline a rest, but her next job, managing editor of a local newspaper, delivers some surprises. After a respected Senator and World War II hero dies and two more people turn up dead, the news heats up. Both victims had ties to a hotel owned by the Senator’s family. With the help of reporter pal Clarice and the new man in her life, Phil, Amy uncovers a number of shadowy figures, including a Holocaust survivor who’s spent sixty years tracking down Nazi loot. It’s a complex and dangerous puzzle, but Amy can’t walk away until she solves it.

Review:

“Edited For Death” is your classic, loveable mystery novel but with an interesting spin (I can’t share what this ‘spin’ is because I won’t give away spoilers). I love it when mysteries are engaging enough to keep you guessing the identity of the killer even when you aren’t reading the book, and this did that for me. I found myself constantly considering the plot of this book and weighing the likeliness of each suspect against one another. I continually narrowed down my suspect list as the book progressed and am pleased to announce that I picked my killer correctly (I’m pretty good at that). I am an avid mystery reader and enjoyed that this book brought back the classic structure to mystery fiction because it has been a while since I read a book like that. The characters in “Edited For Death” – especially the protagonist, Amy – were very believable and all had unique personalities. I liked reading a book from the perspective of a reporter for once rather than a detective. That being said, the author did a wonderful job of incorporating the point of view, although not directly, of the police through Amy’s boyfriend who is a police detective himself. I loved this intricate plot which was riddled with suspense, plot twists and, of course, mystery. My only complaint is that it was difficult to keep track of everyone and everything in the beginning of the book because the reader was immediately introduced to a number of characters and two murders occurred almost instantaneously. I wish the author took a little more time to introduce the characters because I felt that the plot took off before I was ready. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will certainly read more by the author. “Edited For Death” is a compelling mystery novel with strong characterization, an intricate plot, and twists that will keep you up all night reading.