Review: Murder Is No Accident by A.H. Gabhart

Blurb-"Young Maggie Greene may be trespassing in the old, empty Victorian mansion on a quiet street in Hidden Springs, but all she wants is some private time in the magnificent tower room to write her stories. Certain she'll be in trouble if caught, she hides when a realtor shows up. But someone else is in the house too, someone even more worried about getting caught. When Maggie finds the realtor's body at the bottom of a flight of stairs and the other person gone, Deputy Sheriff Michael Keane is called in. He assumes the realtor's death is a tragic accident--until a second person is found dead in the house. When Maggie is threatened, Michael must catch the murderer before anyone else dies."

4 Stars for this murder mystery. Do you know, I'm not sure what I expected, but I don't believe it was this... The setting is very much "small-town-USA" and the so are the people. Hidden Springs seems to be a place where everyone knows everyone. Where the deputy sheriff goes to help an old farmer fix his fence and shoo his cows back in. Where using the lights AND sirens on the car causes everyone to sit up and take notice. I enjoyed getting to know the characters from Hidden Springs (and I did jump right into book 3, typical me, so if I know I've missed out on some of that!) Especially Aunt Lindy. She was one of my favorites. Michael was another of my favorites and it was from him that almost all of the POV came. I thought it was going to be a slow book, I think, and at first it was, but somewhere when I wasn't looking, action started happening. People came in from other states. Bodies were being found. Kids were getting threatened. And Van Gogh's were being carried around as shields. I thoroughly enjoyed the heart-pounding action. (Even if it did make me wish I weren't alone at home after dark...) There were a couple things that annoyed me/ I didn't agree with/ I wish weren't in there/ Whatever: 1) There's a woman preacher (2) There were several (pardon me) slang-y "heck"s and "darn"s and "gee"s and stuff like that, which I could have done without. Other than these things, I enjoyed it immensely. (I still prefer Gabhart's River To Redemption though.)