In the third cosy in the Mall Cop Mystery series, EJ Ferris is recovering from the disappointment of not landing the security director job at Fernglen Galleria. Instead, that job went to the niece of the board chair of the group who owns the mall. It would be palatable to have lost the job to someone qualified, but Coco has just graduated with a fashion design degree, and her first priority is redesigning the uniforms. Unfortunately, this is all happening just as EJ's father, action star Ethan Jarrett, has arranged to have his latest film shot on location at Fernglenn, which calls for extra security that Coco can't (and doesn't seem to want to) comprehend.

Things take a sinister turn, though, when prop master Zoe is found dead in a public men's restroom during in early morning shoot. As always, local police detective Anders Helland warns EJ not to interfere with his investigation. But as the murder took place on mall property and involves people that were close to her father, EJ can't help but feel involved and want to solve the murder herself. Moreover, though, she misses investigative work, and it's increasingly clear that Coco doesn't know the first thing about how to secure a mall, let alone run an investigation. But can EJ solve this murder before she becomes a victim herself?

Each book in this series gets increasingly better. The characters that populate the mall are fun and lively, and I wish I could shop at Fernglen. I enjoyed the romance that began to bloom in this book, as well as the potential for the love triangle that was teased. I also liked that a character who had been previously shrouded in mystery revealed more about himself. The mystery itself was nicely written and kept me guessing; the scene in which the culprit was revealed was taut with tension, and I loved how everything played out.

The one criticism that I have with this series, though, is that EJ is constantly looking for employment elsewhere (usually in police departments, and at the end of this book, she is offered an interesting job opportunity). However, as the series is called Mall Cop Mysteries, it seems pretty telling that she will either never receive the job she wants or take other offers. While it's understandable that EJ is a mall cop due to a military injury and would like a job comparable to her old job, this device is getting tedious in an otherwise stellar series.