Book review: Killer Run by Lynn Cahoon

I managed to read most of this book while waiting at my son’s doctors appointments yesterday.

Received from NetGalley

Killer Run by Lynn Cahoon is the fifth in her Tourist Trap mystery series. I’ve not read any of the earlier books, and that turned out to be a bit of a problem. The premise of this story is that the town has organized a 5K run. During the event, the body of a woman is discovered. The main character, Jill Gardner, owner of the local coffee shop, is one of the organizers. She’s also been known to solve some mysteries, which apparently has resulted in some trouble for her. This time, however, she’s promised her detective boyfriend, Greg, that she will keep out of it.

The book is definitely a cozy sort of mystery. It focuses on a lot of the local relationships between Jill and her friends, family, and frenemies, more than it does on the solving of the mystery. I enjoyed reading the book, but I did wish it had a little bit more depth in terms of those relationships. I found it difficult to believe that Jill’s aunt was actually 70, given the way she spoke. Their relationship was fun, but I found that frequently situations turned a little emotional, then went unresolved as neither spoke about their issues. I also thought that the relationship with Greg was a little cold. I wondered if that was because I hadn’t read previous books, but I wanted a little bit more feeling of connection there.

I also wondered about Lille’s animosity toward Jill. It didn’t seem to have any reason behind it. Then the resolution of the truck story kind of came out of nowhere. There were no real clues about it, except that Jill worried a little about the person behind it.

The main mysteries of the vandalism and the murder were fairly well handled, I thought. There were clues that built toward the resolution, though honestly, in the end I found all the culprits’ motivations a little bit thin.

It’s funny. As I read the book, I was interested and wanted to read more, but now that it’s done, it’s a little disappointing, The writing was good and I think that if I’d read earlier books, I’d probably be a lot more connected to the characters. For me, this book gets 3.5/5 stars.

 

 

 

 

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