Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Murder of a Wedding Belle by Denise Swanson

The Scumble River series by Denise Swanson is a great read.  I've been reading them for a long time.  Skye Denison is a school psychologist who returns home to Scumble River after being away for a long time.  She is the police department's psychological consultant on the side and gets mixed up in just about every murder that happens in the small town.  She is also being pursued by two men in town, Simon, the local Mortician and Wally the Police Chief.  In this outing Skye's cousin, who's been living in LA returns to Scumble River to be married in the most outlandish wedding of the century.  She asks Skye to be her maid of honor. When the wedding planner is murdered 2 weeks before the wedding, Skye steps in to both coordinate the wedding and question everyone involved. High society meets down home folks makes for a lot for humor.  I really enjoyed this book.
PG-13
Sex-mild Skye and Wally have romantic moments, the words smolder make me laugh, but they do sleep together
Violence-mild you don't see the murder, Skye just finds the body
Profanity-D-mn 12, H-ll 9, Ass 9, S-it 6, B-tch 2, G-d 1 they refer to God many times in a good way

Deader Homes and Gardens by Joan Hess

I've been reading Joan Hess books for years so I was excited to find her newest book had come out. She writes with a lot of humor but also with a serious hand on murder.  The cast of characters in this book is what amused me and kept me reading.  Claire owns the local bookstore, she is married to Peter who has secret ties to the FBI and a teenage daughter who is very dramatic and speaks in Capital Letters Mom! This cracks me up!  Her very recent marriage has made their living arrangements extremely close quarters so it is time to go house hunting.  She finds the perfect house, however buying it is complicated, the owners end up dead and the extended family (the strange, funny, wacko cast of characters) don't want outsiders buying any home in their commune. When the agent showing the house to Claire comes up missing, Claire believes it isn't a coincidence, and the deaths of the owners just might have been murder, and so the mystery begins.  I hadn't read a Claire Malloy mystery in quite awhile and I was a little surprised at how much profanity was in it.  It wasn't extreme, no words that made me uncomfortable, but enough to give it a PG-13. But I still really loved it.
PG-13
Sex-none
Violence-mild murder is discussed but nothing graphic
Profanity- D-mn 14, H-ll 6, S-it 3, Ass 3, G-d 2 other remarks referring to God, B-stard 2, B-tch 2