How to Ruin a Vacation
A
Kate Williams Mystery
Becky A. Bartness
iUniverse (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-595-45405-4 (0595454054)
ISBN-13: 978-0-595-45405-1 (9780595454051)
Publication Date: February 2008
List Price: $12.95
Synopsis
(from
the publisher): Uptight attorney Kate Williams is sent on a much-needed
vacation by her partner at their Chicago law firm. Her destination is the
Lazy ZZ Ranch, sixty miles northeast of Tucson, Arizona. Kate pictures
a spa-like resort for her respite, a comfortable lodge dripping with
rustic, frontier ambience. Instead, she’s greeted by a pink
stucco building, the front lawn filled with plastic flamingos and every
imaginable lawn ornament. Something tells her this isn’t
going to be the vacation she envisioned.
Unwittingly, Kate stumbles upon the murder of a Mexican immigrant
employee of the Lazy ZZ Ranch. She’s determined to report the
crime and find the perpetrator, but she doesn’t know whom to
trust. Should she tell her story to Chris MacKay, who has already
admitted he was involved in another murder, or should Kate confide in
the dude ranch owner, Jeff Oman, who is deceptive, handsome and
chivalrous?
In a week, she comes face-to-face with horror and misery. Kate must
call upon her inner strength to save her life and uncover the sinister
motives behind the murder.
Review:
Becky A. Bartness (an attorney herself) introduces lawyer and amateur
sleuth Kate Williams who uncovers strange happenings while on vacation
in How to Ruin a
Vacation.
Kate's image of a week at a luxurious desert spa is shattered when she
arrives at the Lazy ZZ Ranch in Arizona. Rather than the oasis she
pictured, she's greeted by plastic pink flamingoes incongruously placed
among a large assortment of other tacky lawn ornaments. The sprawling
grounds are not well marked or lit, making the simple task of getting
from one place to another difficult. One evening she takes a wrong turn
and finds herself witness to what appears to be two people, a man and a
woman, disposing of a dead body, that of a staff member that she had
only recently met. While trying to get away, she stumbles into a
ravine, knocking her unconscious, only to awaken in the home of a
neighbor to the Lazy ZZ, a stranger with a past: years ago, he killed
his wife after finding her in bed with another man. Not knowing who she can trust, and with the erratic
availability of phone service to call for help, Kate embarks on her own
investigation to determine who killed Lazy ZZ worker and why.
How to Ruin a
Vacation is a relatively short book written in a crisp,
almost spare, style that seems perfectly suited to its character, Kate
Williams. The opening chapters that bring Kate to the Lazy ZZ Ranch are
terrific, introducing other characters and setting the stage for her
investigation. As a bonus, it's frequently amusing and a pleasure to
read. But about midway through, the book loses some of its edginess
that was so appealing in the beginning. For reasons never made quite
clear, Kate goes from being a determined, intelligent, independent
woman to a one that seems timid, easily frightened, and insecure. From
a plot perspective, the intent here seems to be that Kate doesn't know
who can be trusted with what she witnessed and thus presents herself a
dependent and helpless female to further her investigation. But this is
so out of character that it seems silly rather than strategic.
Despite the rather weak conclusion (a lead-in to the sequel?) and some
other minor inconsistencies in plotting, How to Ruin a Vacation
is an entertaining debut mystery with Kate Williams clearly having the
potential to continue to delight readers in subsequent books
in the series.
Special thanks to Becky A. Bartness for providing a copy of How to Ruin a Vacation for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Mysteries in this series ...
How to Ruin a
Vacation
iUniverse (Trade Paperback), February 2008
ISBN-10: 0-595-45405-4 (0595454054)
ISBN-13: 978-0-595-45405-1 (9780595454051)
Omnimystery keywords for How to Ruin a Vacation
...
Location(s) referenced: Tuscon, Arizona.