Heavy Mental
Heavy Mental
A Clancy Parker Mystery, Book 1
P.J. Morse
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Date of Publication: November 30, 2012
Available at the following retailers:
Amazon
A musician’s gotta eat, which is why rock guitarist Clancy Parker takes on side gigs as a private eye. When she gets a new case involving a stolen necklace, Clancy’s thrilled at the prospect of easy money.
The job turns out to be anything but. Soon enough, Clancy must dodge threats from disgruntled secretaries, unhinged society matrons and rampaging ice cream trucks. The only person who can provide answers about the necklace is her client’s sexy psychiatrist, but Clancy’s budding crush on him only leads to more trouble.
Eventually, Clancy must rely on all of her contacts – her stoner bandmates, her Socialist landlord, and her yoga-loving, flask-toting mother – to stop the thief from turning into a killer.
Giveaway:
Review:
This is the first book in the Clancy Parker Mystery Series by P.J. Morse. Clancy Parker is the daughter of a divorced San Francisco socialite and Cape Cod wealthy businessman, so she knows how to interact with and recognize wealth, but she doesn't belong to it. Clancy has gone a different direction with her life. She lives in the South Park section of San Francisco, works as a private detective and plays lead guitar in a local indie rock bank called Marquee Idols. Clancy gets quite a few recommendations from her mother's friends and has done quite a bit of catching cheating husbands for the social register crowd.
We are introduced to Clancy as she is sitting out front of her building with her landlord and spiritual adviser Harold. Harold is a retired Research Librarian, reads biographies in a lawn chair in front of the building and acts as a sounding board and human research computer for Clancy. A new client shows up, a Sabrina Norton Buckner, who wants Clancy to help her find a 2 million dollar necklace that has disappeared. It seems that Sabrina had planned on donating a portion of the proceeds from auctioning the necklace to her psychiatrist Dr. Craig Redburn's self-esteem charity. But the necklace was stolen before she could gift it to him to auction. Sabrina claims that Dr. Redburn has helped her since her father died and she wants him to continue his good works. But Clancy is suspicious of the doctor and warns Sabrina that if she takes the case Clancy will find out all kinds of things that Sabrina might want to stay hidden. Sabrina denies there is anything going on with the doctor and understands the warning.
Clancy takes the case and then is almost immediately approached by Sabrina's husband, Peter Buckner to follow Sabrina and make sure that she is okay. Apparently "Bucky" doesn't believe that the psychiatrist is doing his wife any good and that she is unstable. This waves a red flag for Clancy, but she decides to go ahead and take the case since she will be following Sabrina around anyway. All this and trying to find a new bassist so the band won't lose and important gig a few months away. Clancy is going to have to be on her toes and use all her resources to solve this case.
This was a great first book in a new series. The information was given out as needed, and it doesn't slow the pacing down at all. Each of the characters was incredibly vivid and distinct. The interactions between the characters at different societal levels felt truthful and accurate. I could really see them in my head. There was also some good dialogue and the actions and reactions of characters felt realistic and true to life. I liked how the author managed to slip in some comedy at odd moments to really keep the mood balanced. Overall a really good book. I am going to go with 4 stars on Goodreads and start haunting the author's website for plans on when the next book is coming out.
Book Tour Info:
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The Broke Book Bank
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May 21 -
Brooke Blogs
Author Bio:
I write cozies your nana might not like. Then again, that depends on your nana.
I have two mystery series in the works — one featuring the rock ‘n’ roll detective Clancy Parker and the other starring the erotic bakery entrepreneur Muriel Kovacs. The first novel in the Clancy Parker series, Heavy Mental, is out now. The first novel in the Muriel Kovacs series, Missionary Position, made me a quarterfinalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. It will be out soon.
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