Jessica H. Stone delivers a killer first book in her new murder mystery series, Blood on a Blue Moon: A Sheaffer Blue Mystery.
Somewhere on the line between Kinsey Milhone and Stephanie Plum, sails insurance investigator Sheaffer Blue on her sailboat Ink Spot. Probably sailing a bit closer to Plum’s chaos magnetic style than Milhone’s more professional demeanor as a fellow insurance investigator. But then, it’s the madcap nature of Plum’s investigations that makes her series so much fun – and the same is certainly true for Blue.
Blue’s job as an insurance investigator starts out as temporary as every other job she’s ever held. She’s just there to save up enough money to get her beloved Ink Spot’s back dock fees paid off. Once that happens, she will sail away to Mexico, live on part-time work, and sail as much as she wants.
Can you live on a dime in Seattle?
Even living aboard a boat in a low-rent dock slip, as Blue does, nearly breaks the bank. She needs funds to live her dream, and that’s where her current job comes in – and it very nearly takes her out.
The case starts out small. A fire on a houseboat where an elderly woman dies of smoke inhalation. Open and shut, right? Not so fast. There’s a big fish who’s pressuring Blue’s boss to solve the case pronto. He’s been eyeing the lakeshore property with plans to develop it into a playground for the wealthy. All he needs is a swift settlement and the rest of the houseboat owners gone.
Everyone wants the case solved.
Blue wants to do her job and get the boss off her back. She’s one step closer to sailing away, but the cops – or at least one cop, Detective David Chen, doesn’t believe the case is as straightforward as it appears – or as someone wants it to appear. And there are plenty of clues to make the reader’s detective hackles rise along with the cops, even if it takes Blue a bit to get there.
That’s what makes the story so fascinating, and the mystery so compelling. The more that both Blue and Detective David Chen poke into the life of the victim, and the more that the wealthy developer pokes into Blue’s boss, the more tentacles of the case begin to slither and the more the coincidences pile up.
And the more the reader is on the edge of their seat.
While the police detective brings his professional knowledge and detachment to this investigation, Blue’s style owes a lot to Stephanie Plum’s more chaotic process, or mostly lack thereof. In fact, her amateur detective status gets her into trouble – a lot of trouble. And this is what makes the novel work spectacularly.
Blue’s style of controlled chaos allows her to see things that the detective misses. Through her slapdash methods, readers understand why Shirley, the original victim, was the kind of person who fought great battles, inspired great friendships, and put herself in the crosshairs of a long-ago tragedy that resulted in her murder.
Award-winning author, Jessica H. Stone builds her characters with plenty of spark and mayhem – enough to carry an entire series. Readers looking for a female detective to follow now that Kinsey Milhone has left her alphabet unfinished, or who love the madcap and sometimes maddening methods used by Stephanie Plum and just can’t wait for her next number, will find a lot to bite their nails over in Sheaffer Blue’s first – but hopefully not last – case.
