Missing Mark

Book No: 36
Title: Missing Mark
Author: Julie Kramer
Genre: Mystery
Completed: 7/11/09
No. of Pages: 273
Rating: 3/5*****

Second book to feature Riley Spartz, Stalking Susan is the first.

I like Riley Spartz, the investigative reporter for Channel 3 news in Minnesota. I enjoyed Stalking Susan and was looking forward to Missing Mark. Although I liked the book well enough there were some things here that really missed the mark – so to speak.

First and foremost there is an opening scene where a man is found murdered in a house that Riley wants to buy – skip to chapter 2, the murder never comes up again. It just seemed that Riley would investigate this crime, or mention it again, but the next topic for her investigation is the story behind an ad for a never worn wedding dress. It seemed an odd choice for the gutsy Riley. Secondly the ‘mystery’ of the missing bridegroom wasn’t all that interesting or challenging, I had it figured out in about 10 pages. There are two more subplots, one involving a fish stolen from an aquarium and a neighbor who has constant garage sales. The first one was kind of lame and led to a very improbable coincidence near the end of the book and the second one was so obvious that the fact it takes Riley half the book to figure out was a little out of place since she is supposed to be a seasoned investigative reporter.

What saves the book from a little lower rating is the easy reading style and the character of Riley, who is someone you might want to be friends with, and her relationship with retired detective Nick Garnett looks promising. The supporting characters are fun, but in danger of becoming clichéd if there isn’t any growth, but there is potential for that as revealed in the epilogue, a plot device which I am not too fond of.

Overall a light and breezy mystery series, good for a lazy day read.