Skating Over the Line by Joelle Charbonneau, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Rebecca Robbins, owner of the local roller skating rink, has a reputation for solving crimes — a year ago a handyman was killed and Rebecca helped the police nab the killer — so the residents of her central Illinois town ask for her help again when someone starts setting cars ablaze in Skating Over the Line, the second mystery in this series by Joelle Charbonneau.

Rebecca keeps her hopes alive that she can sell the rink, which she inherited from her mother, and return to her previous life in Chicago but she's happy to be around her grandfather, who lives in an area senior center and entertains the folks by being an Elvis impersonator. She's less than thrilled, however, when her estranged father Stan shows up asking for money. Rebecca is unwilling to reconcile with him and most certainly won't give him any money, but she's a little distressed when his car is found abandoned and set afire. Stan disappears, but then other cars suffer the same treatment … with one of them containing a body. Death threats soon follow and everyone is perplexed. Car thefts, fires, death threats, and now someone has stolen a key to Rebecca's rink and blown a hole in it. Is it possible there is a connection between all that's going on?

Despite the shocking crimes being committed, Skating Over the Line is a charming, amusing cozy-style mystery, populated by a cast of slightly off-beat, yet endearing, small town characters. The storyline unfolds in a straight-forward manner and while not overly complicated, offers readers a chance to match wits with Rebecca to unmask whodunit.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Skating Over the Line.

Acknowledgment: Minotaur Books provided a copy of Skating Over the Line for this review.

Skating Around the Law
Minotaur Books (Hardcover), September 2010
ISBN-13: 9780312629809; ISBN-10: 031262980X

Skating on the Edge
Minotaur Books (Hardcover), October 2012
ISBN-13: 9780312606633; ISBN-10: 031260663X

Skating Over the Line

A Rebecca Robbins Mystery by Joelle Charbonneau