February 18, 2024

Book Review: A Small Case of Murder

Book Title:
A Small Case of Murder
Author: Lauren Carr
Publisher: Independently Published
Publisher Date: 2011-4-26 (324, Pages, Paperback)
Genres: Mystery, Murder Mystery, Fiction, Crime Fiction, Mystery Thriller
Series: Joshua Thornton Mystery #1
A Small Case of Murder is set in the quaint West Virginia town of Chester, where everyone knows everyone, and there is never a secret that someone doesn't know. In such an intimate town, how many suspicious deaths can be left unquestioned?

Following his wife's death, Joshua Thornton leaves a promising career in the U. S. Navy's JAG division to move across country with his five children into his ancestral home. While clearing out the attic they find a letter written to their grandmother postmarked 34 years ago. In the letter Lulu Jefferson wrote "...Remember that dead body we found in the Bosley barn?...I saw him today...I went to talk to the reverend and there was his picture on the wall." What dead body? His interest piqued, Joshua asks about Lulu and finds that in 1970 she died on the same day that she penned the letter implicating the pastor in an unreported murder. There is much more to this story than a 34-year-old letter. It's a 34-year-old mystery Today, a double murder has the whole town under a microscope.

The state attorney general appoints Joshua special prosecutor to solve the crimes. In a small town where gossip flies as swiftly as a spring breeze it is impossible to know who to trust. Asking simple questions about events long ago could prove to be deadly for Joshua and his family. Read this Author Revised Edition of Lauren Carr's debut mystery novel. It's the same GRAND mystery, revised and edited for re-release by the author herself 
Disclaimer: I bought this book myself and this is my own honest review
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We are introduced to Joshua Thornton and his five children in chapter 1. The prologue brings Lulu Jefferson's view and a little bit about his parents. We are also introduced to Tad. There is a catch as Joshua moves his family to his former hometown.

He seems to get caught helping someone who tried to kill his cousin Tad in a church, and it seems to bring more to be involved. All when he goes to the state attorney general. It is more as his murderer with his arrangement and ends up murdered along with Beth Davis.

There is a twist when things get more complicated, and the state attorney general decides to ask or request Joshua to become a Special Prosecutor for the case of Vicki Rawlings and Beth Davis. They think he got the trust of the citizens of his hometown. Will he take the offer, or will he not?

Joshua is working with a police officer and a local reporter. What appears to be one thing is that his children are so like him that they want to join in and protect him. Does Joshua wish to be a dad and raise them, or will he hide from them and not send this child to live with their extended family? How will he decide to deal with the life he was chosen for?

Lauren Carr's Mysteries and stories are good. However, this one is less dense when it starts at the story's beginning. However, the action is improving, with this one being when Joshua and his five children are introduced. They are about school age. This book gets better as it goes along.

This is probably when she was starting to write these kinds of stories. This is their second series, so it has improved dramatically since. I love this one. I only wish I knew more about what happened to Valerie and what caused her to pass away. Then Joshua moved and settled in his hometown with his lovely five children. But other than that, it is a good starter book or series to get into her books, Along with Mac Faraday Mysteries.

 
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