Review: Small Town Spin by LynDee Walker

Small Town Spin is the third book in the Headlines in High Heels Mystery series by LynDee Walker.  I was super lucky enough to have discovered the first book, Front Page Fatality, early in April of last year during one of the very first book tours I ever signed up for and fell in love with the book.  In October, another book tour company had her 2nd book, Buried Leads and I have a great guest post from Ms. Walker along with the review. There is also a novella available in the Heartache Motel Anthology, that covers events between Buried Leads and the beginning of this book. This has been a consistently great series, so when I saw that it was available on Netgalley, I was super excited.

This book opens with Nichelle fights a losing battle with her allergies. Since she is feeling so poorly, she gets a rare afternoon off, to go home a rest.  Unfortunately, the news doesn't respect sick days and Parker, Nichelle's co-worker and former super star baseball player turned sports reporter has a scoop for her - and its personal.  Parker's college buddy, and football legend's son has apparently committed suicide and they are willing to have his story told - by Nichelle.

So Nichelle heads out to meet with the family, but the more she learns about the boy and what happened, the more the pieces just don't mesh for her. Afraid that she is bringing her personal feelings into the story, she slowly starts digging all the while second guessing her gut instincts. When the boy's girlfriend is also found dead in an apparent suicide, more clues begin to point to murder.

This was the best book yet in the series, honest! Finding out some of the backstory about Nichelle and how/why she chose journalism, and particularly investigative journalism was masterfully done and left me wanting more. We also get introduced to an old friend of Nichelle's, that promises even more backstory in the future. Plus there was such great tension and struggle as Nichelle tries to figure out her relationship with both Joey and Kyle that I am as confused as Nichelle about which guy to root for. I gave this book a 5 star rating and can't wait to see what happens next for Nichelle.

When a superstar athlete's son turns up dead in a tiny town on the Virginia coast, crime reporter Nichelle Clarke gets the inside scoop. But she quickly spies a gaping hole her inner Lois Lane cannot ignore.

Determined to unravel the mystery, Nichelle fights off paparazzi cameras and an unexpected rival. She uncovers an illegal moonshine operation, a string of copycat suicides, and a slew of closets stacked with more skeletons than slingbacks. Chasing a killer who’s a breath from getting away with murder, Nichelle realizes too late the culprit has her number—and it might be up.

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     BN