Revenge Served Cold

Jackie Fullerton

After Professor Elliot Spence is run down by a car, his wife Kathy is suspected of murder. She was drunk at home and doesn't remember the evening, but she loves her husband. She wouldn't kill him. She had been drinking after receiving a cruel, hurtful, anonymous gift.

Anne Marshall is taking law classes in the evening. She had been in Professor Spence's last class before he was murdered. She is interested, but that is it. Until her father shows up. Her father died a few years earlier. Now his ghost comes back to visit her and help her with the occasional mystery. He agrees with Kathy's friend (and Anne's boss) Shirley. He wants Anne to investigate and he will help her.

Anne loves her father - they had a special bond when he was alive. She can't tell anyone else about his visits, though, even Jason. Jason and Anne have been a couple since sixth grade. He is in the district attorney's office and she is a court stenographer while going to school for her degree. Jason doesn't want her to stick her nose into the mystery. She was nearly killed the last time she (and her father) got involved in a mystery.

She can't help it. With her father's urging she starts poking around. She involves her law class classmates in her investigations. One helps her break and enter. Another braves an exclusive baby boutique to question the saleslady. Another gets socked in the jaw. Yet they continue to help her.

Revenge Served Cold is a very cozy mystery with an interesting investigator. I like Annie and her father and would like to see more books featuring them. The characters are believable. Anne is a little too nice but I believe there are depths to her that can be revealed in further novels.

That saying, Revenge Served Cold is a so-so mystery. It was fairly obvious by half way through who was behind the car "accident". The bad guys are properly bad, one partly redeems himself. Anne pokes her nose in where she shouldn't. But the murderer is caught. There is no depth to this book - it is for entertainment. And to present a new sleuth side-kick, a ghost. It does both nicely.

Notice:  Non-graphic violence, Suggestive dialogue or situations

Provided for review

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