Sunday, February 26, 2012

Review of New Mystery- Tempest in the Tea Leaves

In this fun and frolicsome mystery by Kari Lee Townsend, we meet psychic Sylvia "Sunny" Meadows. She can see the future for others by reading tea leaves, but her own life is a mess.

Sunny leaves the big city to build a life and a new business in small-town Divinity, but things get off to a rocky start. She moves into a haunted house, complete with a scary, and possibly magical cat, whom she christens Morty.

During a tea-leaf psychic reading, Sunny sees tragedy, which comes true as the woman is murdered shortly after. Sunny becomes a suspect, and must contend with a grumpy but attractive detective that she won't admit she likes. They argue constantly, neither giving the other an inch.

To add to her troubles, her annoying, arrogant parents show up, constantly putting her down and getting in the way. Poor Sunny can't even get a proper haircut, as the salon completely messes up, and now Sunny has just too much to handle.

Circumstance keeps throwing her with the detective, and she tries to solve the case, hoping she'll get off the hook soon, as being a murder suspect isn't good for building a new business.

She's an outsider in this little hamlet, and suspects abound, mostly over a fight to save the town library. Sunny does what she can, but there's just so many things going on, it's like trying to stand still in a hurricane.

The pace reminds you of those fun screwball Hollywood movie comedies of the 30's and 40's, with rapid-fire dialog, and verbal sparring matches between couples who are right for each other, even if neither will admit it. The story hurtles at breakneck speed toward a resolution of the mystery and Sunny's personal crises.

So if you like your amatuer sleuths sassy and fun, you'll enjoy this read. It's the start of a series, so get in on the ground floor! Grab a copy of Tempest in the Tea Leaves.

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