A honeymoon disrupted,a murder mystery and a close group of friends. Part of a series but works reasonably well as a standalone. Interesting characters.

This was an easy read with an interesting storyline, ideal for those who enjoy larger than life characters who tend to be on the brash side. You need to appreciate big personalities with big emotions. Perhaps also a little one-dimensional for me.

Ace (the German Shephard) is definitely the hero!! Perhaps Jax should listen to him more often.

The many references to the previous cases seemed irrelevant at time and perhaps fed the perception of them being a little gunghoNot quite my cup of tea - but I'm sure many will enjoy moving along with this fast paced murder mystery.

Its 3 out of 5 for me

My thanks to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for my advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #WILDCARD #NetGalley

Review: I am new to this series, but it seems anyone could jump in at any stage and be wholly entertained.

This writing style is quite stilted. The overt explanations on settings, happenstance and daily interactions were tedious. You know, the backstory dialogue of, "Well, remember when we found skeletons behind the wall in our last adventure, you were not so squeamish then.......". That kind of blah, blah, blah is just filler and is never a consistent or relevant approach to writing. It works if minimized and impactful, yet overuse can slow the story line for lack of movement.

The characters are consistent, yet having not read any prior in this series, have no way to gauge character development or progression. I assume these are the same unchanging people from previous novels. Another thing is that the good characters are all so upstanding, moral and righteous. Yawn.

What was good? Dissected in parts, this novel is trash. Taken as a whole, it is compelling in a few ways. The characters do coalesce into a functional and entertaining ensemble. Even the anthropomorphic dog, ACE gets to shine in every scene with his human like mannerisms. The mystery throws obvious red herrings but is complicated enough to fuddle most readers.

I had a good time and that is enough.

I received this ARC for an honest review.