Peace, Love and Murder by Nancy Holzner, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Nancy Holzner introduces upstate New York cab driver Bo Forrester who's under suspicion after police stop him for a minor traffic violation and then find a body in the trunk of his car in Peace, Love, and Murder.

The dead man is Fred Davies, founder of the Davies Foundation for the Arts, which operated the Finger Lake Artists in Residence program, promoting promising talent who passed their rigorous application process. Though Bo isn't a suspect, he's a person of interest and Deputy Trudy Hauser takes it upon herself to link Bo to the crime. A few days later when one of Bo's fares turns up murdered, he really looks guilty. So if the police think he's involved, he might as well be, and seeks to discover who really killed Fred Davies and why they're trying to frame Bo for the murder.

There's no shortage of people who might have wanted Davies dead, and this diverse group keeps Peace, Love, and Murder interesting. A financial officer for the foundation with a gambling problem, an art expert who fancies herself a femme fatale, a skinny white rapper artist trying to make a name for himself, and more. The only character who is really unlikeable, at least initially, is Deputy Trudy Hauser. Her antics seem more appropriate for a teenager than a law enforcement professional. That she and Bo will ultimately work together is a given; it's just that the tension that supposedly exists between them early in the book seems forced and unnatural. Still, the story serves as a good introduction to the characters and gives Bo and Trudy a challenging puzzle to solve.

In a promising twist for future books in the series, the reasons Bo has returned to his home town is to look for his parents, hippies from the 60s from whom he has been estranged and lost contact with. Peppered throughout Peace, Love, and Murder are references to his parents and Bo's search for them; the conclusion of the book offers a hint where they might be … and is likely the setting for more amateur sleuthing by Bo Forrester.

Acknowledgment: Nancy Holzner provided an ARC of Peace, Love and Murder for this review.

Peace, Love and Murder

A Bo Forrester Mystery by Nancy Holzner