Thursday, March 08, 2012

Review: "Death Will Extend Your Vacation" by Elizabeth Zelvin

Scheduled to be released in April, this latest book featuring recovering alcoholic Bruce Kohler and his friends Jimmy and Barbara, is another good one. While it could be read as a stand-alone this novel is later in time after Death Will Get You Sober and Death Will Help You Leave Him and thus should be read after those two good books.


This time around the three have taken shares for the summer in a group house in the Hamptons.  They are not alone in the hose which is dedicated to clean and sober living. Vitally important because of Kohler’s complex history with alcohol as well as the experiences of his friends and assembled housemates. It should be a great summer and a relaxing one.

The murder of one of the housemates the day after Bruce and his friends arrive messes up that plan. Clea was beautiful but death ruined her image while also exposing a lot of secrets.  Because of so many in the house as well as the large number of locals that had contact with the house and its guests the initial pool of suspects is large. As the weeks pass with increasing drama and additional killings, the suspect pool begins to narrow somewhat.

This third book in the series is another good one. Interpersonal relationships and psychological issues regarding addiction, etc. remain at the heart of this series. Those issues drive relationships, fuel conflict and are always present at some level throughout the book. Over the three books, Bruce Kohler is gradually evolving and becoming more and more a complex person in terms of moving on from his past and forging new relationships. Breaking the destructive cycles of the past and forging new relationships is a key component to recovery and clearly at work here through the three books.

Death Will Extend Your Vacation features more interesting characters, a complex mystery with twists and turns, and a summer on the beach to remember. Death Will Extend Your Vacation is another solidly good one from the talented Elizabeth Zelvin.

Death Will Extend Your Vacation
Elizabeth Zelvin
Five Star (part of Gale, Cengage Learning)
ISBN# 978-1-4328-2577-5
Scheduled Release Date: April 20, 2012
ARC 

Material supplied by owner PJ Nunn of BreakThrough Promotions at http://breakthroughpromotions.net/  in exchange for my objective review.


Kevin R. Tipple © 2012


3 comments:

Morgan Mandel said...

Sounds like Elizabeth has another winning book!

Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

Kevin R. Tipple said...

That she does!

Unknown said...

Thanks for making me aware of the free day Kevin. I just downloaded it and will add it to my reading list. I may not get to it right off the bat, but I'm definitely looking forward to it! :)