Beth Groundwater’s debut novel is tightly written with well rounded, fully believable characters. One of the things about cozies is they are usually about amateur detectives who are drawn by circumstances into solving a mystery.
In this case, Claire Hanover has a real doozie thrown at her. While in the middle of a home massage someone enters her home and shoots the man attending to her. Understandably terrified and in shock, a screaming Claire soon finds her husband rushing to the room carrying the gun. Of course the police think they have their man.
Claire, however, is just as certain they do not and sets out to prove her husband’s innocence. Not only is Claire trying to prove her husband is not guilty of murder, she is also trying to convince him that the massage was not a prelude to an affair.
Set in Colorado Springs it was fun for me to watch Claire swallow her fears as she confronts the detective, meets with a drug lord and interviews scurrilous suspects all in an effort to free her husband. Which was another aspect of the book I liked … Groundwater doesn’t have her heroine jump into her investigation lightly. It was hard for her and she had to screw up her courage in order to accomplish some of the things she did, which added a greater level of believability to the story.
What a fun book. Well written, A REAL BASKET CASE is good mystery and filled with characters I’m hoping show up in the second book (I have yet to read it). I would absolutely recommend reading this book. And if you happen to live in Colorado Springs, as I do, you’ll find plenty of familiar landmarks that will add to your enjoyment. PPPLD has a copy of the book as well as the second one if you should want to check it out. Believe me, you won’t be sorry you did.
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