Bingo row 4 – red
(Why did I splay out the book like this? To show how red it is.)
I recently read and partially read a few books that should have been enjoyable, but they weren’t. Maybe I was in the wrong place for books I would have enjoyed at another time. Maybe those books just weren’t for me.
But whatever it was, what I needed was murder mysteries.
Danger to Others by Martha Crites is a standalone sequel to her first book. If I read them both this year, I’d be reviewing them together because they aren’t that different. This works because more of the same is what I want from Crites.
Like the first book (which is called Grave Disturbance), it is a Seattle based mystery with a focus on mental health and Pacific Northwestyness. It also stars Grace, an involuntary commitment evaluator who solves murders while trying to advocate for the mentally ill and work within the modern healthcare system. Also, she’s a person and has to handle being a wife, mother, dog owner, neighbor, friend.
When a patient confesses to a murder, Grace needs* to find out what’s true and what’s not. Someone was definitely murdered, there were definitely not demons. The patient clearly witnessed the murder, but did she do it? Maybe. Maybe not. I was guessing right until the reveal and I usually figure it out by then.
* She actually doesn’t need to. The police are actively doing that too.
The places and topics were very familiar to me. I like reading things set in places I know, but it’s not hard to find things set in Seattle. However, I haven’t found anything so set in the Seattle I’ve lived in. Grace could be my coworker and I could have met her and the other characters during my day to day life. The murder took place in a neighborhood I lived in. The victims memorial was on a campus I’ve taken shortcuts through. Clues were found in bars I’ve been drunk in. These things definitely enhanced my reading. But I think I would have liked the book anyway.