Book Review: Dang Near Dead

Author: Nancy G. West
Title: Dang Near Dead
Publisher: Henery Press
Publish Date: Sept 30, 2014
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley
Book Blurb: 

Aggie vacations with Sam and Meredith at a Texas Hill Country dude ranch with plans to advise her column readers how to stay young and fresh in summer. Except for wranglers, dudes, heat, snakes and poison ivy, what could go wrong?

When an expert rider is thrown from a horse and lies in a coma, Aggie is convinced somebody caused the fall. Despite Sam’s warnings, Aggie is determined to expose the assailant. She concocts ingenious sleuthing methods that strain their dicey relationship as she probes secrets of the ranch and its inhabitants. After she scatters a hornet’s nest of cowboys, she discovers more than one hombre in the bunch would like to slit her throat.

Review: This is the second book in the Aggie Mundeen Mystery series.  I really loved this book, much more than Fit To Be Dead.
 
Aggie is much more tolerable in this book. She's a genuinely fun character, but her obsession with staying young was a bit much in the first book. That is not the case here.

She's at a dude ranch for vacation with her friends Meredith and Sam. Enter so many quirky characters, from ranch employees to other visitors, that you'll be laughing almost from the start.

Before the main mystery starts you learn the original ranch owners were found dead a few years back by Bertha. That's something Aggie wants to investigate from the get go and then Vicki is thrown from her horse and well, let the sleuthing begin.

I do have one issue with this series. It is set in the 90s, but the reader doesn't know that for quite awhile. (When Vietnam vets are said to be in their 40s and even that is off in a lot of instances) I like to know the time period of the books I'm reading, and this was one thing I did find a little annoying.

The sleuthing was much better in this one. I liked that Aggie was working more with Sam, than going it alone. It helped in the development of her relationship with him too. (Though she still hasn't told him her secret). Speaking of secrets, her's really shouldn't be a big deal in the 1990s..the 60s yes, the 90s no.

This is a fun, quirky mystery that kept me turning the pages.

Rating: 5 flowers