Published by Harvest House
Publishers,
15 March 2006.
ISBN 0-7369-1486-2 (PB)
This story bowls along at a fast clip with an effective pattern of alternating narrators. The initial event is when Jo Tulip, the heroine, has a blind date with a man startlingly unlike his photograph who proceeds to drop dead in the restaurant where they have met. The resulting police investigation unearths strange happenings. Jo Tulip is a good central character as a rather disillusioned single woman who runs a business based on a web site offering household hints and handy advice - such tips are provided as introductions to chapters narrated by Jo. The web site actually exists and can be visited. There is a parallel love story and events involving a separate set of characters who gradually move towards meeting each other and sparking off a potentially catastrophic climax.
The cover describes this book
as a Smart Chick Mystery and a note on the back cover reveals that this is the
second in a series with the third and final episode to be published soon. I did not find it difficult to read Blind
Dates can be Murder without having previously read The Trouble with
Tulip since the bones of that first story were crafted into this one. I did find the final paragraph of the book
slightly irritating since it so obviously led into the next adventure, but it
is an understandable plot device in such circumstances.
There is no doubt that
detective fiction frequently represents a struggle between good and evil with,
hopefully, the bad getting their just desserts and the good their reward so readers
may find this a satisfying conclusion. ----------
Reviewer: Jennifer S.
Palmer
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