Rafa Blue, who has issues with her mother and
sister, is at the Daiquiri Dock Marina as this novel opens. It is a dark and
stormy night thanks to a tropical storm that has strengthened to a minimal
hurricane and is currently pounding through the Keys. Rafa Blue needs to check
the family boat, a cabin cruiser named “The
Bail Bond” and make sure it is safely secured in its slip. While the boat
is fine, somebody is in the stormy sea next to the boat and in trouble.
Rafa flees back to her car and uses her cellphone to
call for help. After calling 911 for help for her friend and dock master Diego
Casterano, Rafa Blue returns to the scene and eventually goes into the storm
tossed waters for him. Unfortunately, there is no help possible for Diego and
the effort puts Rafa into the hospital for a brief time.
Rafa is interesting and has her fingers in many
pies. She dreams of writing novel length fiction, currently writes a column for
the local newspaper about interesting local people, lives in a hotel and helps
out at the Frangipani Room. Not to mention a painful personal history with her
family, a boyfriend that wants marriage, and a few other odds and ends. Getting
considered a suspect in the murder of her friend Diego means that she has to
investigate---something the local police chief surprisingly seems to encourage.
The latest mystery from author Dorothy Francis is
another solidly good one featuring strong primary and secondary characters. Several
secondary characters in this novel closely resemble characters from other
books. Once again, several of the suspects are Rafa’s friends and they all work
at an open air restaurant deal that opens around sundown, food is served, and
music is played. That background setting is clearly one the author feels
comfortable with as it is used again in this novel. There is another “Mama G.” who
once again is territorial about music and makes a special kind of food for the patrons.
Once again the heroine is conflicted about the intentions of her boyfriend and
her feelings, drives a Prius, and has extensively read about psychopaths and
sociopaths.
The primary mystery is different and strong in all
cozy style aspects. An interesting and complicated case, the classic assemblage
of characters to be questioned by the police, and other aspects are all done
well. The constant misdirection as
various people in Rafa’s life are considered in the role of the suspected murderer
before they either eliminate themselves or are killed removing them from the suspect
list also works well. The end result in Daiquiri Dock Murder: A Key West Mystery is
another steady and good novel by Dorothy Francis.
Daiquiri
Dock Murder: A Key West Mystery
Dorothy
Francis
Five
Star (Part of Gale, Cengage Learning)
April
2012
ISBN#
978-1-4328-2574-4
Hardback
292
Pages
$25.95
Material
supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin
R. Tipple ©2012
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1 comment:
Good review, Kevin.
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