Body on the Beach (The Vangie Vale Mysteries #5)
by R.L. Syme
My Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: MF
Blurb:
Just when you think you’re turning over a new leaf… surprise! It’s the old leaf.Yeah, I can’t help myself. Even when I’m on vacation in the Outer Banks, if there’s even a sniff of a crime… even the whiff of a murder… I can’t help but get drawn into it. In another life, I should have been a cop. Instead, I’m gonna follow this tattooed guy with a gun all the way down this beachy road because he said something weird in the bakery once.
It’s like I’ll never learn…
My Review
I really enjoy this series and it’s one of my favorite cozy mystery series. This is the fifth book in the series and it actually takes place in North Carolina instead of Montana as the previous books. Vangie is spending time with her family in this book as she gets involved in another mystery. I have to admit I struggled a bit with the book at first due to the difference in setting and lack of familiar side characters. I even set it aside and came back to it later, but when I did I was ready to experience this book and really enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed this book. It felt like a very important one for Vangie with the way she gets to process some things. She struggles with whether to return to Montana or not and I liked the way she’s figuring things out for herself and then made her decision. It’s interesting to see Vangie interact with her family and I like how typical Vangie she is. I like her curiosity and need to get answers and it works great for a main character in a cozy mystery series. I like how real Vangie feels and it’s one of my favorite things about this series, getting to Vangie and appreciating how real she feels.
The mystery was another good one. Lots of twists and turns and so many secrets that come out. There wasn’t a dull moment and I liked how every chapter it felt like I learned something new about what was going on or about the characters. It was an engaging mystery and I kept wanting to know what happened and how everything tied together.
To summarize: I really enjoyed this fifth book in the Vangie series. I struggled a bit adjusting to the new setting of this book at first, but it makes sense why the setting is different. I thought this was an important book for Vangie as a character and I liked seeing her deal with everything that was going on. Vangie is such an interesting character and feels so realistic, I really enjoy reading about her. The mystery was a good one, plenty of twists and turns as well as lots of secrets and truths that come to light. It kept my attention and I wanted to find out what had happened. The ending wrapped it up well and I am looking forward to the next book!
I like following series where I can really get to know the main character. Glad the mystery was a good one, too.
The main character is so well done in this series, I really enjoy reading about her. And the mysteries are good too luckily.
That does sound good.
Mary Kirkland recently posted…Book Review: Forgiveness by Celeste Raye
It was a good one 🙂