Author Sophie Katz owes her writing career to her mentor
Melanie O'Reilly. When Sophie was going through the pain
of dealing with her father's death, Melanie told her to
write to cope with her feelings. Now Melanie needs
Sophie's help. She needs her to spy on her husband Eugene
who has been acting strangely since he has returned from
his trip. Melanie is convinced her husband is cheating on
her and wants Sophie to find out the truth for her.
Tragically, Melanie doesn't get her answers when the night
ends with Eugene being killed in a drive by shooting.
Melanie enlists Sophie's ex boyfriend, PI Anatoly
Darinsky, to investigate the case. Since this case
involves Sophie's friend and it was her case to start
with, she insists on being part of the investigation.
Together Sophie and Anatoly discover that Eugene was
involved in a political campaign with some very shady
people. Could Eugene have known something that cost him
his life? When another person is murdered and an old
suicide connects the pieces to the puzzle, Sophie realizes
she has a dangerous killer to find. Mix in a couple
threatening phone calls and a group of ''furries'' and you
have an interesting who-dun-it.
While working together on the case, Sophie tries to deal
with her buried feelings for Anatoly. Will they get back
together or will this case push them further apart? Who is
making threatening phone calls to Sophie? Will Anatoly be
able to protect her this time or will the killer claim
another victim?
OBSESSION, DECEIT, AND REALLY DARK CHOCOLATE is a cozy
mystery with a dash of humor. While the mystery aspects
were interesting, the political talk bored me. The romance
was minimal and some of the storyline wasn't very
believable. I didn't particularly care for Sophie or
Anatoly. Their personalities weren't engaging enough to
keep me interested and their chemistry was non existent.
In one scene near the end of the book, something big
happens but the author doesn't let the scene play out.
Instead she states what happened in one sentence. I prefer
for the actual action to happen, not to be told about it
after the fact. It just takes all of the suspense out to
do it in this fashion. While the story was written well,
the characters and the plot fell flat for me. I hope the
next book in this series has more romance and chemistry
between the characters because this one left me
disappointed.
Mind her own business? Leave it to the experts? Not a
chance.
?especially when asked to spy on her friend's
strangely behaving husband, Eugene, at one of San
Francisco's hottest nightclubs. When Sophie shows up in a
short red cocktail dress and the potentially two-timing
hubby shows up dead, the would-be sleuth launches a full
investigation.
Without warning, Sophie plunges into a
world of political mudslinging and campaign cover-ups. She
uncovers some pretty dirty secrets, including a certain
conservative congressional hopeful's involvement in the
"Furry" community-a group with a fetish for mascot-sized
animal costumes. Sex and politics, wouldn't you know?
Sophie knows she needs help, and turns to P.I. (and
ex-boyfriend) Anatoly Darinsky. Together they set out to
discover who killed Eugene and why. Their professional
relationship may be repaired, but what will this very
unusual case do for their personal one?