Lowcountry Boneyard (A Liz Talbot Mystery) (Volume 3)
By: Susan M. Boyer
Rating: 5 of 5
“Lowcountry Boneyard” is the first book I have read by Susan M. Boyer. It is the third book in her series about private investigator Liz Talbot. I often start a series in the middle and am always curious as to whether or not the book relies too heavily on its predecessors. I was able to enjoy this book as a stand-alone; however, given how much I enjoyed it, I would suggest that readers read the series in order. I definitely plan to pick up the first two in the series in the near future.
Liz is in her early thirties and has been in the P.I. Business for more than a decade. She is hired to investigate the month old missing person case of a young, wealthy woman named Kent. The police have back burnered the case, feeling that the young woman has left the area voluntarily to get away from her controlling parents. The more Liz finds out about Kent’s extremely wealthy family, the more suspicious she becomes of them.
Liz and her partner (both in business and in life), Nate, start their investigation and come up with many clues that Kent may not have left Charleston by her own choice, if in fact, she has left Charleston.
The plot is fun and fast, the dialog was realistic, funny, and flowed well and the characters are interesting and their antics are humorous. Liz is also assisted by her guardian spirit, Colleen, who was her best friend and who passed away seventeen years before at seventeen years old. The spirit/ghost angle is very amusing and, I feel, is probably better explained in the first book in the series. That was the only area of the book I felt a little in the dark about but by the time the book was over, I understood quite a bit more about the Liz and Colleen relationship. Colleen has a character was a real hoot. I’ve read other mysteries that had a “ghost” type character but this is certainly the character I enjoyed the most. It will be interesting to go back and find out the why, how, and when Colleen reappeared in Liz’s life.
The whodunnit was pretty good, though I admit I figured out most of it out about 60% of the way through the book. The author left a few clues in the text and I was able to pick up on one of them which pretty well sealed the end of the story for me. Regardless of figuring that part out, I really enjoyed reading this book. I read it in a single afternoon and laughed out loud many times during the reading. It is a fun book that I recommend to anyone who loves a great cozy mystery.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Henery Press, via Netgalley.
“Lowcountry Boneyard” is the first book I have read by Susan M. Boyer. It is the third book in her series about private investigator Liz Talbot. I often start a series in the middle and am always curious as to whether or not the book relies too heavily on its predecessors. I was able to enjoy this book as a stand-alone; however, given how much I enjoyed it, I would suggest that readers read the series in order. I definitely plan to pick up the first two in the series in the near future.