Series: Mac Faraday #1
Format Read: Kindle book
Source: Amazon Lending Library
Release Date: June 23, 2010
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository*
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Blurb from goodreads:
What started out as the worst day of Mac Faraday’s life would end up being a new beginning.
After a messy divorce hearing, the last person that Mac wanted to see was another lawyer. Yet, this lawyer wore the expression of a child bursting to tell his secret. This covert would reveal Mac as heir to undreamed of fortunes, and lead him to the birthplace of America’s Queen of Mystery and an investigation that will unfold like one of her famous mystery novels.
Soon after she moves to her new lakefront home in Spencer, Maryland, multi-millionaire Katrina Singleton learns that life in an exclusive community is not all good. For some unknown reason, a strange man calling himself “Pay Back” begins stalking her.
When Katrina is found strangled all evidence points to her terrorist, who is nowhere to be found. Three months later the file on her murder is still open with only vague speculations from the local police department when Mac Faraday, sole heir to his unknown birth mother’s home and fortune, moves into the estate next door. Little does he know as he drives up to Spencer Manor that he is driving into a closed gate community that is hiding more suspicious deaths than his DC workload as a homicide detective. With the help of his late mother’s journal, this retired cop puts all his detective skills to work to pick up where the local investigators have left off to follow the clues to Katrina’s killer.
Bea's Thoughts:
I read about this series at another blog and liked the sound of it so I borrowed it from Amazon. The premise is different, the characters are memorable, and the plot complicated. There are numerous murders and several mysteries going on; several times I thought I had figured out what was going on only to discover that I was wrong. I did figure out several key players but that had more to do with the author telegraphing it early on.
Mac Faraday was going through some rough patches when he found out that the woman who gave him up for adoption when he was an infant has died and left him her estate. Oh, and she was a world-famous and very wealthy mystery writer. The book starts with his arrival at his new home and we follow along as he settles in, gets involved in a neighbor woman's murder, and gets involved with a woman, his mother's assistant, which was blindingly obvious from the first mention of her. I was disappointed that Carr went the obvious route. I also noticed that there was a pattern to the characters; if they were unlikeable, then they were a bad guy, they died, or both. I hope this pattern doesn't repeat in the rest of the series.
There were some cliches and a few things were obvious but the story was nicely convoluted with strong character development, a good balance of action, story, humor, and romance, and a good pace. I enjoyed Mac, though the set-up reminded a bit of the TV show, "Magnum, P.I.". Although Mac is a good deal more mature than Magnum was and isn't sponging off someone else. There's a dog, Gnarly, who is quite quirky and as fully a character as any of the humans. "It's Murder, My Son" was a good read, sometimes fun, sometimes exciting and engrossing. I'll definitely pick up more in the series.
Sounds like fun though not without a few flaws. I'll keep this series in mind!
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