'After being mugged in New York city, Miss Felicity Prim decides to leave the big city and purchase a home in the country, where she will be safe from the dangerous criminals who call New York home. A devoted reader of crime fiction, Miss Prim believes that her reading experiences have given her the skills required to become an amateur sleuth in her new home of Greenfield, Connecticut.
She gets her chance to prove her mettle when she finds a corpse in her basement. As Miss Prim searches for the victim's identity and killer, she finds her father's old journals, which create a crisis in her family.
Meanwhile, Miss Prim's young friend, Dolly, has become involved in a dangerous situation and needs Miss Prim's help. Can Miss Prim, with her insights into human behavior and her steadfast refusal to rely on forensics and databases (which she considers the crutches of lazy investigators), save the day and bring everything to a happy resolution? Of course she can...'
My thoughts:
I found out about this book by reading about it on one of the book blogs that I follow. I thought this book sounded interesting and I enjoyed the blogger's review, so I went ahead and purchased it for my Kindle and got down to business. I am so glad that I discovered this gem. It was a quirky, witty and intelligent mystery novel and I simply couldn't put it down. I loved Miss Prim's character and her willingness to try to help everyone. I really hope that this is the beginning of a new series as I simply cannot imagine Miss Prim's adventures ending with this book.
This author puts me in mind of Alan Bradley in a way. The quirky characters, yet their intellect and intelligence shines through despite the contrary. While the ending was a little bit of a shock and unexpected, I really enjoyed this one a lot. I am curious to see how everything plays out with the characters and I am begging the author to continue writing about these characters. This book was refreshing to a reader who reads a lot of mystery books. I loved the author's take on the detective world and how Miss Prim tries to replicate the great detectives of literature. Unfortunately, Miss Prim realizes that she cannot be like the great detectives of literature and seems to find herself along the way.
An utterly engaging novel from the first page to the last. I cannot recommend this book enough to readers who want to read a fresh new voice in the mystery genre. I am delighted that I read this book and hope that you guys will pick it up as well and enjoy it as much as I did. I read this book in one day and found it to be utterly irresistible. Well worth the money I spent and I will be paying close attention to this author and see what he comes up with next.
Overall Rating: 4.5
Title: The Outsmarting of Criminals
Author: Steven Rigolosi
Series: Miss Felicity Prim Mystery #1
Publisher: Ransom Note Press
Publication Date: March 31, 2014
Pages: 304
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was purchased by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.