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Third Degree

Third Degree, December 2010
A Murder 101 Mystery #5
by Maggie Barbieri

Minotaur Books
Featuring: Alison Bergeron
320 pages
ISBN: 0312593287
EAN: 9780312593285
Hardcover
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"Let professor Alison Bergeron teach you how to solve a murder with the right mix of humor and skill."

Fresh Fiction Review

Third Degree
Maggie Barbieri

Reviewed by Lynn Cunningham
Posted April 29, 2011

Mystery

College professor Alison Bergeron stops in a shop called Beans, Beans for a cup of coffee while on her way to meet her (about to be) fiancé's family. She's not sure she wants to meet his family, and she's not sure that she wants to marry him, either. Bobby Crawford is a gorgeous cop and all a girl could ever want in a man, but Alison is gun shy with good reason. The coffee is meant to fortify her but, instead, she gets caught in the middle of an actual fistfight. As the two men come crashing through the door, she gets knocked to the pavement. When the owner of the shop manages to get things under control after calling the cops, he takes Alison inside to put something cold on her quickly swelling and blackening eye. One of the men comes back inside to apologize to Alison just before he drops dead on the spot.

As it turns out, the dead man is a much despised local food critic, Carter Wilmott, with many enemies. His cause of death is ruled as a blow to the head but something just doesn't make sense to Alison. Things get even more interesting when the wife of the man in jail for killing Carter starts following Alison around town. In the midst of all of this, Alison's good friend, Father Kevin, is having some strange problems of his own that he says he can't share with her.

Alison's long-suffering almost fiance', Crawford, is starting to lose patience with her refusal to discuss whether or not she's marrying him. It's hard for her to do that, though, when she keeps feeling nauseous every times she tries to think about it. Actually, Alison's been feeling sick a lot and that's another puzzle.

When it starts to dawn on her as to what really happened to Carter, things begin to get dangerous for her. Is she going to get this mystery solved before someone shuts her up permanently? Will she agree to marry Crawford? Is August going to continue to be a bad month for her?

This is one of the most engrossing "cozy" mysteries I've ever had the pleasure to read. The action just doesn't stop! Also, there are plenty of "laugh out loud" moments in this book to make people turn and stare at you if you're reading the book in public. It's book 5 in the Murder 101 series, but the first one that I've read. I'll be getting the rest of them now because Alison is one of the most enjoyable book characters that I've run into in ages.

Do yourself a favor and get to know Alison Bergeron. You're going to love her and all of her mysterious adventures.

Learn more about Third Degree

SUMMARY

On her way to meet her boyfriend’s parents, Alison Bergeron has to stop by a local coffee shop to steel her resolve. It’s a big event. Not only is it the first time she’s met NYPD Detective Bobby Crawford’s entire family, but it’s also coming on the heels of a wedding proposal that she has left unanswered so far.

As she steps into the shop, a fight breaks out between Carter Wilmott, a merciless local blogger, and George Miller, the head of the town's public works and the ostensible target of one of Wilmott’s posts. The brawl quickly spirals out of control, and George lands a fatal blow.

The case couldn’t be anymore simple, and Alison witnessed the whole thing, but when Wilmott’s car explodes in the aftermath, what looked to be a straightforward crime of passion becomes something far more complicated and premeditated, and George Miller’s wife wants Alison to clear


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