Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Loose Ends (A Mary O'Reilly Paranormal Mystery) by Terri Reid

I just finished reading this book and I have to say I haven't enjoyed a book as much as this in a very long time. As you know, I normally read soft, cozy murder mysteries.  This book pulls you in from the first chapter, a flashback to the 1980's, the murder of a young political intern.  Then flashforward to present day and you are introduced to Mary O'Reilly a private investagator who is very serious about her profession, and as an added bonus happens to be able to see dead people.  It is kind of a "Ghost whisperer meets murder she wrote" two of my favorite tv shows.  But this is far from a cozy murder mystery.  This book has much more of a crime novel feel to it. Mary is asked to investigate the murder of the intern from the '80s.  She not only "sees" the murder (ala ghost whisperer) but in the course of the investigation she stumbles upon the murders of 6 little girls from the same time that are begging to be solved and put to rest.  There are very serious parts of this book where I was so tense I actually jumped, and one scene that had me gripped to the point I couldn't put the book down! The author has a great way that she plays with words, not only keeping you glued to the story, but also making you smile and sometimes even chuckle.  My favorite line in the whole book was her give-away wink to an old favorite primary song "choose the right, she sang softly, repeating the words from a childhood sunday school song."  That's right, the author is LDS! You would not guess, as this is NOT a Christian Mystery.  This is a mainstream novel.  There is a bit more profanity than I normally read (see below for exact) but still nothing more than I would recommend.  I still loved the book and highly recommend it if you can overlook that.  One of my favorite books in the last year and I plan to read more Mary O'Reilly Mysteries!!

PG-13
Sex-mild: It does talk about little girls being abducted by a very bad guy who has bad thoughts about them but it doesn't get graphic
Violence-mild: Talks about the little girls who went missing 20 years ago, the main murder is very simple, no graphic violence
Profanity-H-ll 26, D-mn 39, B-tch 4, Bstd-1, G-d 2, Sh-t 2