Start to Finish

 

Start to Finish is the first book in a new cozy series featuring an academic as an amateur sleuth and written by Pamela A. Williams. Released 19th Oct 2020 by NineStar Press, it's 196 pages and available in ebook format. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

I love amateur sleuth cozies. I especially love professor/academic sleuths, so the premise was definitely a plus for me. I wasn't expecting *quite* so much drama-romance content, but readers who enjoy a little mystery with their romance reads will likely find this one fits the bill nicely. The plotting and story arc are well done, I never found my interest flagging and it never felt rushed to me. It's a quick read, so the plot moves along at a pretty good clip. 

The writing is competent with engaging, well rendered characters. If some of the secondary characters were a bit two dimensional and blended together a bit, it didn't detract from the storytelling overall in my opinion. I never felt like I was lost or needed to go back and re-read to sort out who the characters were in relation to the plot.

The romance plot often overshadows the mystery; there's definitely chemistry between main protagonist Ian and his sort-of-ex, investigator Jake. The language is rough - I'd say PG-13, and the book contains several scenes of graphic sexual content (consensual and used in context - but not really safe for a work read, in my opinion). 

Engaging, with a satisfying (if not shocking) denouement - three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.