Secondhand Smoke by Karen E. Olson

Secondhand Smoke by Karen E. Olson

Genre: Mystery
Series: #2 Annie Seymour series
Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 259
Challenges: Support Your Local Library #16
Source: Library


The Short Version:
Foul mouthed New Haven crime reporter, Annie Seymour investigates a suspicious fire at a long time favorite restaurant in her neighborhood.

Why I Read It:
I read the first book in this series (Sacred Cows) a couple of years ago and liked it well enough to keep the three follow up books on my TBR list. I’m starting to see some reviews about the author’s new Tattoo Shop series but want to finish up this series first

The Book:
Annie Seymour wakes up to the sound of sirens and the smell of smoke. A longtime favorite neighborhood restaurant is in flames. Annie grabs her notebook and starts to get the story. When a body is found in the remains of the restaurant, the story gets complicated. The restaurant owner is missing and his widow has hired Private Detective Vinny DeLucia to find him.

Annie is torn between her job as a reporter and her personal connections to the victims and perhaps the suspects. While she’s known these people for years, she is still seen as an outsider and this is reinforced by her job to investigate and report the story.

Her personal life is even more complicated. Having recently broken up with the lead detective, she’s also got some unresolved relationship issues with Vinny. With all three of them investigating the same case it’s feeling a bit crowded on the trail to the truth.

Then Annie’s dad comes back to town from Vegas. Her mom is dating Annie’s publisher and is also the lawyer for at least one of the suspects. And what about the chickens??

My Thoughts:
Lots of characters are a bit difficult to keep track of (particularly in the beginning), but the pace of the story keeps things moving. It’s not as slapstick as Stephanie Plum, but it’s not really a hard boiled investigative reporter / detective story either.

It lands somewhere in the middle and is an enjoyable lighter mystery series. There are only 2 left in this series so I plan on eventually finishing off the Annie Seymour books and moving on to the author’s second series about a tattoo shop in Vegas.

Rating 3/5