Great Escapes Book Tours Book Review: River City Dead

River City Dead by Nancy G. West

River City Dead (An Aggie Mundeen Mystery) Cozy Mystery

Henery Press (January 17, 2017)

Paperback: 224 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1635111330

E-Book ASIN: B01MA6NALN


Synopsis

Aggie Mundeen, who advises readers in her column, “Stay Young with Aggie,” is pushing forty and determined to postpone a precipitous descent into middle-age. She plans to rendezvous with SAPD Detective Sam Vanderhoven at a hotel on the San Antonio River Walk…a vacation from crime and reset for their tumultuous relationship. In the midst of River City during Fiesta Week, what could go wrong?

Aggie’s new friends, the Fabulous Femmes, are holding their convention at the hotel. When hotel guests are murdered, Aggie discovers her friends have disturbing backgrounds. Evil surfaces at Fiesta events, and Aggie’s dancing debut at a Fiesta performance at Arneson River Theater is fraught with danger. Even in idyllic River City, crime complicates relationships. Books in the Aggie Mundeen Humorous Mystery Series:

•FIT TO BE DEAD (#1) •DANG NEAR DEAD (#2) •SMART, BUT DEAD (#3) •RIVER CITY DEAD (#4)

Review: River City Dead sees Aggie Mundeen and her beau, Sam,  SAPD detective attempting to have a romantic get away.

The only problem is that when Sam gets to the hotel there's a dead body there and all hopes for getting their relationship off to a romantic start are pretty much put to an end to that.

When the dead girl happens to be someone Aggie knows she has to help with the investigation. Aggie is getting really smart in her investigation.

She really finds some great ways to get information on Monica Peters while still trying to have a good weekend. I really enjoyed learning about Fiesta and the customs surrounding this holiday.

Monica was definitely a character/victim that you actually feel sorry for. A good percent of the time the victims in cozy mysteries, deserve their fate. Monica wasn't really all that bad and definitely didn't deserve what happened to her. She was just a young woman that was really looking for a good time and someone to love her.

I loved the Fabulous Femmes and the subgroups and clicks and all the drama this group of women create. The ladies Aggie met were definitely quirky and fun and they really carried the story along.

The only thing that drives me absolutely nuts about Aggie, is her obsession with age. She's not even 40 yet and she acts like she has one foot in the grave. As a woman that is 42, I almost find her attitude insulting.

Aggie is getting smarter in her sleuthing. I'm surprised at how Sam does let her help investigate. She still tries to do things on her own, that usually puts her in harms way. I was happy that her relationship with Sam has survived her actions this time round.

This is a fabulous series that any mystery lover will enjoy.

Rating: 4 flowers

About This Author

I’ve been writing since age seven: poems back and forth with my mom. I had a real poem published in the Library Journal, Pegasus, at age fifteen. At eighteen, I wanted to study journalism and English literature, but friends who chose that college route were making minimum wage or selling lingerie. Being practical, I earned a business degree. After marriage and two children, I decided I HAD to study literature and write. I wrote non-fiction articles, a biography, and a suspense novel in 2004. That’s when whimsical Aggie Mundeen cut through the suspense, popped into my head and demanded her own series. The Aggie Mundeen mystery capers were born. Aggie must have been right: FIT TO BE DEAD is a LEFTY FINALIST 2013 for best humorous mystery, nominated by Left Coast Crime.

 

Links:

Chat with Aggie and Nancy on their blog: www.stayyoungwithaggie.wordress.com Author’s Webpage: http://www.nancygwest.com/

Author Page at Henery Press: http://henerypress.com/authors-humorous-mystery-series-authors/nancy-g-west/

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6442929.Nancy_G_West

Purchase Links Amazon  B&N a Rafflecopter giveaway

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

Great Escapes Book Tours Interview & Review Nancy G. West - Fit To Be Dead

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I took a creative writing course, my first, in college and LOVED IT. Business majors (I was being practical) don’t take many electives. Later, I heard a free-lance writer speak at a community college in St. Louis who wrote articles for magazines. I thought, “I can do that!” And I did for several years before I realized I HAD to write fiction.

Who is your favorite author?

I can’t name only one. Elizabeth George, Ken Follett, Jodi Picoult, James Lee Burke, Anne Lamott, Michael Connelly, Ann Patchett, Charles Krauthammer, Maria Doria Russell, Nancy Kress, Janet Evanovich, Harper Lee, William Shakespeare, Bruce DeSilva.…I get something different from each author. And what a gift it is.

What was the inspiration for the Aggie Mundeen series?

I was writing a serious suspense novel, and Aggie popped up in a class alongside my protagonist. Aggie was older, wiser (sort of), slightly cynical, and funny! I was hooked. After three books writing about Aggie Mundeen and friends, I’m still hooked.

What is the easiest and the hardest thing about writing a series?

The easiest thing is to fall in love with your characters and watch them react and change as they face outlandish and dangerous situations. The hardest thing is to keep from repeating qualities that made you fall in love with them. And you have to have a sense of where your main characters are going, even before you start. For instance, I knew from the beginning that Aggie and Sam, despite their dicey relationship, would grow closer with each story. Meredith has unforeseen challenges to face.

What is next for Aggie and Co?

Aggie, always searching for pearls for her column, “Stay Young with Aggie,” goes back to college to learn the latest scientific discoveries on how genes affect aging. Single, pushing forty and in love with a reluctant detective, Aggie has a personal interest in the subject.

Will scientists be able to alter the aging process and keep people young? In Smart, But Dead, Aggie probes for answers with dangerous results.

Author: Nancy G. West
Title: Fit To Be Dead
Publisher: Henery Press
Publish Date: July 24, 2014
Buy: Amazon
Review Copy Provided By: Great Escapes Book Tours & the author

Book Blurb: 

Aggie Mundeen, single and pushing forty, fears nothing but middle age. When she moves from Chicago to San Antonio, she decides she better shape up before anybody discovers she writes the column, “Stay Young with Aggie.” She takes Aspects of Aging at the University of the Holy Trinity and plunges into exercise at Fit and Firm.

Rusty at flirting and mechanically inept, she irritates a slew of male exercisers, then stumbles into murder. She’d like to impress the attractive detective with her sleuthing skills. But when the killer comes after her, the health club evacuates semi-clad patrons, and the detective has to stall his investigation to save Aggie’s derriere.

Review:  Fit to be dead is a fun cozy mystery that will keep you turning the pages while Aggie, Sam and Meredith look for a killer, who may be after Aggie too.

Aggie, is a little bit hard to handle. She's in her thirties, but she acts like she should be in her 70s. She's so obsessed with growing old, and she's not old at all. She's also retired from a bank in Chicago. Again, I have to say WTF, because who retires in their 30s.

But the mystery is a fun one. Poor Holly. She  nearly dies from being electrocuted in the club pool only to get mowed down by a car later.

That's when the crazy starts. Truth be told, if some of the things that started happening to Aggie, happened to me, I wouldn't have darkened the doorstep of that exercise club. Nope, no way. So I'll give her credit for being persistent.

There's a little side mystery going on too, involving Aggie's neighbor, and friend Grace. The end result of that mystery will definitely leave you a bit surprised. Ok, a lot surprised!

This was a really enjoyable read, even though I wasn't so keen on Aggie's personality. I do love the column she writes, and I hope it figures in more in the next books!

Rating: 4 flowers