Blu, of Blu Carraway Investigations. and his partner Mick Crome are back! And that means only one thing, a lot of action!

This is the 2nd book in this series, see my reviews for BLU HEAT, a prequel (https://wp.me/p370vC-4bq) and IN IT FOR THE MONEY (https://wp.me/p370vC-4kB).

Blu and Mick are hired by Mr.Jansen, as he feels someone is following him. At the same time, Mick's girlfriend goes missing. The days are going by and they are no closer to following Maureen.

So their friends join them in the search. A journalist that works with them, Harmony, joins the Mayor on his boat and word comes that the Mayor's body has washed up but no sign of Harmony.


Are these disappearances and Jansen connected in some way? Where are the women? The group ramps up in finding who has kidnapped.

After reading the previous books in this series, I knew that would be non stop action. And because of that, I was turning the pages as fast as I could because I knew there would be an explosive ending if they found Maureen and Harmony.

This book did not disappoint. Another great read by David Burnsworth! And with a cliff hanger at the end, I'm so excited now knowing that this series will be continued. Now I have to try to wait patiently for the next book!

Definitely recommend!!

I like Blu. He is not your average private investigation guy. He is unconventional and so are his methods of finding the truth. He is unflinchingly loyal to his friends and serious trouble to his enemies. His partner in business, Crome, is larger than life. With his girlfriend kidnapped, Crome goes off the rails, Blu going after him. Those two make for an exciting plot. Burnsworth includes a number of secondary characters. At times I was a little confused as to who they were and how they fit in.

I like the setting for the novel, the seedier side of the Charleston area. It is a part of America I rarely get to read about.

There was an interesting black flash in the midst of the novel. I felt it broke the narrative a bit but it was good for giving some history between Blu and Crome and how they work together. While it was ultimately a part of the current story I would have preferred it to have been a prologue.

I recommend this novel and the Blu Carrawy series to readers who enjoy a flawed hero slogging his way through the darker places in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. There is plenty of action, keeping the narrative moving along.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours. My comments are an independent and honest review.

In Bad Time To Be In It, the second book in the Blu Carraway Mystery Series, author David Burnsworth transports the reader back to the sultry lowcountry setting of Charleston, SC for another intriguing Blu Carraway Southern noir/mystery adventure.

A year has passed since Blu Carraway and best friend/business partner Mick Crome's last investigative case. But all hell breaks loose when Mick's girlfriend Maureen has been kidnapped! Mick is determined to find Maureen on his own, but Blu and the rest of their team are determined to join in to find Maureen, so they team up and engage in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a person who is seeking revenge for a past case investigated by Mick and Blu. And if that isn't enough, Harmony, one of their news correspondent pals, goes missing after spending time with the mayor on his boat, and whose dead body washes up on shore. It sure does seem to be a Bad Time To Be In It for Blu Carraway Investigations!

Author David Burnsworth weaves a fast-paced and suspenseful tale that follows Blu and Mick's investigative journey as it takes them all over Charleston in search of Maureen and Harmony. The reader is easily drawn into this well-written story with its richly descriptive plot and setting, it is filled with enough action and unsuspecting twists and turns that takes the reader on one hell of a thrilling roller coaster ride.

As a fan of Southern fiction, I loved the richly descriptive Charleston setting and the surrounding lowcountry SC areas. I was intrigued by the author's creativity of intertwining his previous Brack Pelton Mystery Series featuring Brack Pelton with the new Blu Carraway Mystery Series featuring low country PI Blu Carraway. The author masterly weaves one hell of a new explosive mystery series, where Blu, Mick, and their team embark on another dangerous investigative adventure!

With an intriguing cast of characters; witty dialogue and dramatic interactions; and a richly descriptive setting that makes a person want to visit the picturesque city of Charleston, its historic landmarks, and the surrounding lowcountry areas; Bad Time To Be In It is an intriguing tale that has the true essence of a classic Southern noir mystery, but beware it does have a cliffhanger ending that will surely leave the reader wanting more!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours.

David Burnsworth’s second Blu Carraway Mystery opens in Belize City on a blazing hot afternoon. A “woman with the family name of Kincaid” and her two friends are being stalked through a crowded market by Paco and his two partners, Peter and Lin. The women make an easy target, thinks Paco, particularly since “the stupid chicas had only one guard with them.”

God, the women were beautiful. Suntanned white girls in their early twenties. Perfect teeth. Curled, long hair. Linen blouses, short shorts, and sandals. After he shot their protector, his dreams ended with tying each of them to a bed, the fear in their eyes giving him immense pleasure.

And today was the day his dream would come true.

The tableau of predator and prey is a chilling one. The women are sitting ducks. Imperceptibly, the plan goes awry. No Lin, no Peter, and no hapless bodyguard. But Paco has orders to get the Kincaid woman: “Paco knew he could handle her by himself, even if the other two females had to die to make things easier.” Cue up a classic noir twist, delivered in deadpan prose. Paco has company:

He turned back and looked straight down the barrel of a revolver.

His eyes would not—could not—keep from staring at the black hole in front of him that brought death. Where in the hell did this come from?

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition. The hallmark of a successful Blu Carraway operation is satisfaction guaranteed. Low key, no publicity, and do whatever it takes to not only rescue the client but find out who is behind the perfidy. Unfortunately, Paco dies before he gives up his boss. Still, not a bad operation for Blu Carraway Investigations.

Blu Carraway, flush with cash and back in business, never had it so good. Or so he thought. The reality is his love life is in shambles, his business partner is spending too much time with women half his age and not enough time on the job, and someone close goes missing.

The contradictory phrase that opens Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities comes to mind: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Blu Carraway Investigations is based in Charleston, SC, not Paris during the French Revolution, so how does a historical novel relate to a Southern detective agency? The common thread is history; those who do not understand their past are doomed to repeat it.

Mick Crome, Blu’s business partner, has an off-and-on relationship with Maureen, a bartender in Myrtle Beach. Mick is pushing back pints at the Pirate’s Cove bar because Maureen is “pissed off at him” when he picks up a voicemail from an unknown number.

It sounded like Maureen. “Mick? I’m in trouble. Please help—”

A man’s voice cut her off. “Listen Crome, it’s payback time. You took from me so I’m taking from you. I’ll be in touch.”

His phone showed a text message. He tapped to open it up and stared at a picture of a scared Maureen with a gun to her head.

What does “payback time” mean? It could be anyone: “Blu and Crome both knew they had made many enemies over the years.” The story veers back in time to Charleston in 2000. We’re smack dab in a complicated case, the tension leavened by Blu and Crome’s trademark banter. The two men stand out in a sea of tourists.

Both were big—over six-footers. Crome was the consummate biker. He wore do-rags, aviator sunglasses, week-old beards, leather vest jackets, worn jeans, and motorcycle boots.

Blu liked black—black t-shirt, black jeans, and black Doc Martens shoes. Tourists viewed them as oddities. Anyone on the job, living on the fringes of society, or previously incarcerated would recognize them as kindred spirits. Or enemies. Such was life in the gray area.

Perhaps gray isn’t the right shade. Life is black and white for the partners, particularly given the circumstances. “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” No one knows that better than Blu—if only there weren’t so many folks out there who would gladly take him down. It really is a Bad Time to Be in It, but the smart money’s on Blu Carraway Investigations to rescue the girlfriend and uncover the enemy. It won’t come without pain though, as Blu instinctively knows. Blu’s checkered past has brought him to this place, echoing Cormac McCarthy’s searing phrase from All the Pretty Horses, “Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.”

An action mystery. Nice to read about a couple of men as the protagonists, but still not be offended by language and intimate details. Love the horses and dogs. Interesting relationship issues. Appreciated getting into the story before getting the back story. I am enjoying this series and look forward to the next one.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

A kidnapping sends Crome over the edge and out of control. Blu wants to help his friend and partner but he sure isn’t making it easy. Blu rallies his friends and sources, Tess and Harmony, who are freelance reporters and even calls Brack Pelton in on the case. When a body is found and another kidnapping occurs they pull out all the stops to save the victims and try to figure out who is behind the crimes before anyone else ends up dead.

This series is a spin-off of the author’s Heat series and in this 2nd installment, many characters from that series visit this one. Brack and Blu are similar characters, war vets dealing with the trauma of their service while trying to get on with their lives. Mr. Burnsworth’s characters are so strong and leap off the page. They are a diverse group banded together unconventionally by a series of events. While I have read and enjoyed that series and this one, at times there were just too many characters to keep everyone straight. I did like catching up with Brack and hope he has his own story again soon. He doesn’t seem to enjoy life on the sidelines and it always ready to jump in when Blu calls.

The story starts out with a flashback that will then play into the main events of this story. There is another flashback later in the book but the transition was a little clunky and broke the steady climbing trajectory the book was taking. I enjoyed the way previous events impacted the plot, the transitions just needed to be a little smoother. There was plenty of action and again horses have their moment to shine, bringing a huge smile to my face. Blu again went above and beyond. Crome with his him against the world attitude was crazy. Thankfully his friends did everything they could to save him from himself and his enemies.

The author continues to take us to those dark gritty places with fantastic characters and just the right amount of suspense. Blu’s personal life is still up in the air at the end of this story, setting up interest to see what happens next in the 3rd story. Heaven only knows what trouble Blu will find himself up against as this saga continues. I hope we don’t have to wait too long to find out!

PI Blu Carraway's partner Mick Crome goes off the rails when his girlfriend Maureen is kidnapped. Crome refuses any help but his friends including Blu, feisty freelance journalists Tess and Harmony, and the Pirate's Cove Brack Pelton get involved. Through flashbacks, the motive for Maureen's kidnapping is eventually linked to a case from 2000 involving economic developer Ron Jansen, cruise ships and ecological group interests.

I enjoyed the first Blu Carraway mystery but this second book did not work for me. The six days in the book plodded on and I lost interest. The motive behind the kidnapper's revenge against Blu and Crome was also weak.

I received an eARC via Netgalley and Henery Press with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and provided this review.

Gritty in a good way, characters with distinct strong voices--even the dog had personality and in few words we know so much more about the aptly named Murder. I can't praise the character's interrelationships enough. One of the best series I've read

Thank you Netgalley for this book, but unfortunately, I could not finish it. After 45 pages pages I gave up. To be honest, the book is reading like a telephone directory. Names, names, names. Every character in this book knows lots of people, and they know lots of people and all those people have names (of course) and a backgroud. Every time someone in this book needs something, it may be information or a cup of coffee or whatever, a new person pops up to deliver.
I've been reading about people who don't even play a role anymore in the story (although I cannot understand why a female journalist who got married apparently suddenly couldn't work anymore... this is information that I would have like to read for I don't get it.)
I think the story is ok but more work on the actual telling is needed.