In advance of the July 2024 release of the fourth book in Lucy Score’s RILEY THORN series, the first three books are being re-issued in March, April, and May. I just read the first one, THE DEAD BODY IN THE CLOSET. If you love Janet Evanovich’s FOX AND O’HARE and STEPHANIE PLUM series, this book is a similar style.
Riley Thorn is divorced, broke, and working a soul-sucking proofreading job and she is living in a decrepit mausoleum of a house with crazy octogenarians for housemates. The worst part of her life is trying to ignore the voices in her head -the random thoughts of strangers around her, focused messages from dead people, and ominous dreams since she comes from a family with special gifts that she is avoiding. Even her car is haunted by the spirit of her dead Uncle Jimmy. The latest dream is of someone shooting her gross, porn-watching neighbor dead. What follows is a hilarious, fast-paced novel full of quirky characters and a love interest in the form of a gorgeous, dimpled former cop turned private investigator that she helps solve the case.
A nice, normal life. Is that too much to ask? For Riley Thorn it is.
Divorced. Broke. Living with a pack of elderly roommates. And those hallucinations she's diligently ignoring? Her tarot card-dealing mom is convinced they're clairvoyant visions.
Just when things can't get worse, a so-hot-it-should-be-illegal private investigator shows up on her doorstep looking for a neighbor...who turns up murdered.
Nick Santiago doesn't play well with others. Unless the "others" are of the female persuasion. Wink. He's a rebel, a black sheep, a man who prefers a buffet of options to being stuck with the same entrée every night, if you catch his drift.
When the pretty, possibly psychic Riley lands at the top of the list of suspects, Nick volunteers to find out whodunit. Only because he likes solving mysteries not because he wants to flex his heroic muscles for the damsel in distress.
All they have to do is figure out who pulled the trigger, keep the by-the-book detective with a grudge at bay, and deal with a stranger claiming he was sent to help Riley hone her psychic gifts. All before the killer discovers she's a loose end that requires snipping.