The Joanne Kilbourn series by Gail Bowen was a recent discovery. As a long time reader of the mystery/crime genre this is more a mystery series which means that the narrative is carried more by the characters than the procedures leading to the solution to the crime. In this book, the main character is involved in the deaths due to her personal links with the victims, so the detecting is more a matter of circumstances than a calling or career. Bowen provides a believable family life for Kilbourn which is not often found in the genre, possibly because it’s hard to do well. To self-disclose, with this writer and this series I immediately felt that comfortable reader feeling of finding myself in good hands and was able to enjoy both the prose and the plot. Other readers with a different set of expectations may not enjoy the ups and downs of an educated politically active middle aged widow living in Saskatchewan involved in unexpected deaths. Test reading the first pages will likely tell you whether you want to embark on reading the series.

I enjoyed the writing style and plot twists. There was a bit too much 'girly' detail for my taste but still a good fast read and fun setting in Western Canada.

A patron review from the Adult Summer Game: "Great book, excellent detail that really helped build up a picture of the scene and characters. Brilliant twists. Kept me guessing until the last few chapters and then you were willing the lead, Joanne, to work it out."

Interviewed on The Next Chapter - sounds intriguing. This is her first in this series.
Interesting, but didn't grab me enough to finish it. Getting picky in my old age.

A pretty good book.

The leader of the official opposition is killed and his speech writer is determined to find out who did it. I found the book a little slow at the beginning because of details provided. The last half of the book went very quickly - as they always do.