Description (from cover):'Police sketch artist Rory McCain never needed a partner to create a likeness of a suspect. But now, working as a sleuth on the side, she's got a partner who's been dead for over a century...
When Rory's favorite uncle dies suddenly, he bequeaths to his niece a beautiful Victorian home and a list of clients from his private detective business. As Rory tries to get settled in the house, she is startled by a ghost from the 1870's--federal marshal Ezekiel Drummond, aka Zeke--who was helping Uncle Mac with his cases. In exchange, Mac had agreed to help Zeke find the killer who had shot the lawman in the back.
When Zeke proposes a similar partnership with Rory, she balks. Having a ghost as a housemate is bad enough. But as she's drawn into one of her uncle's unsolved cases, Rory finds she needs the help of an experienced investigator--even one who is stubborn and old-fashioned, cantankerous and sexist--not to mention long dead. Faced with a cold-blooded killer, Rory may even need the marshal's ghostly help in staying alive herself...'
My thoughts:
I had high hopes for this one. It has a ghost as main character, a independent female protagonist and it's a cozy mystery. However, for some reason, this one just fell flat. It's another book to add to the 'disappointing debut' category. Maybe it's because I read a lot of cozy mysteries, that I have abnormally high standards for my reads. But one thing I cannot stand, across the board, is figuring out the murderer fairly quickly and that is most definitely what happened with this one. I think with mystery books, this is the most irritating thing for me. I do not enjoy books that are easily figured out. I cannot tell you how much this makes a book less interesting for me. I want to be in suspense until the last page and have to use my brain to figure out a mystery, not have it given to me on a platter.
Sometimes I feel like I am preaching to the choir with this issue. It seems like this has been a reoccurring problem with the books I have read this year. If this is the way that cozy mysteries are going, then I might just have to find some other genre to read. The plot and the characters weren't all that bad and of course I love the paranormal element with the added ghost. The writing wasn't appalling and was easy to understand and comprehend. There were some times where things happened a little fast and some details were left out and then talked about later that I found a little confusing.
Overall, not the worst cozy mystery debut, but most definitely on my list of the top ten least liked debuts. Of course, I will give the series another shot by reading the next installment in the series, but if that one is anything like this one, I will call it quits on the series. I know some people really like this series, but I'm thinking perhaps this isn't the one for me. I am reading the second one in the series now, so make sure you come back to see if the author redeems herself and the series or if it becomes a series I abandoned.
Overall Rating: 1.5
Title: Sketch Me If You Can
Author: Susan Pape
Series: Portrait of Crime Mystery #1
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: August 3, 2010
Pages: 304
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the author in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
