Publication Day Review: Reverse: A Posadas County Mystery by Steven F. Havill

 

Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is in her patrol unit and driving on a quiet evening in Posadas County, New Mexico, when she hears the relaxed voice of Sergeant Thomas Pasquale calling in a license platy check to the new dispatcher on duty. It is November as Reverse: A Posadas County Mystery by Steven F. Havill begins, and the weather has been unseasonably warm. The license plate soon comes back to a totally different car than the one in the parking lot of NightZone.  The currently unoccupied car has been hidden on the far end of a parking lot and sandwiched between an older station wagon and a large pickup truck. After a short cellphone discussion with Sergeant Pasquale, she decides to run code and respond as his backup.

 

She never makes it.

 

As her brilliantly lit departmental Charger rockets down the highway, she collides with a large elk and its baby. The crash is devastating to her, the car, and the elk. Minutes later, Sheriff Jackie Taber, who was a few miles behind her on the same road as she too was already headed to NightZone, is on scene and starts a complicated rescue response.

 

In the aftermath, Estelle is more determined to retire at the end of the year, as scheduled. She soon learns that she is not the only one about to leave the department. Change is coming, the torch is being passed, and those left in the small department, as well as everyone else, are going to have to deal with a seismic shift in personnel.

 

A small department that is also dealing with an ongoing staff shortage, political and budget issues, and crime problems. That also includes the vexing problem of what happened to a 1967 Corvette that was being raffled off to pay for new and much needed church roofs. The car was swiped from the service area of the local dealership. That never should have happened. Where is the car? Who took it? Just two of the many questions that need to be answered as the raffle draws closer by the hour.

 

Not to mention determining what happened to the local teen found near death by the old and very flooded local quarry? It has been abandoned for years. Nobody should have been out there. From the state of the kid, he clearly was there, at some point.

 

What follows is another complicated read featuring characters that are old friends at this point. Characters that are never static, but just like real people in our lives, evolve and change over time. As a longtime reader and a big-time fan of the series, it is fun to again visit with characters that feel like friends and family. To visit again an area of New Mexico that is clearly loved by Mr. Havill. None of us are getting any younger and getting to once again go back to Posadas County is a real treat and much appreciated.

 

The latest installment of a wonderful series, Reverse: A Posadas County Mystery Series, is strongly recommended. As is the series.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4rGFu81

 

My digital ARC came from the publisher, Severn House, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2026

Lesa Holstine Reviews: Reverse by Steven F. Havill

 Lesa Holstine Reviews: Reverse by Steven F. Havill

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Harvey Girl by Dana Stabenow

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Harvey Girl by Dana Stabenow

FFB Review: A Bad Day For Sunshine: A Novel by Darynda Jones

 

From the archive….

 

Sunshine Vicram is back in Del Sol, New Mexico, with her teenage daughter, Aurora, better known as Auri. She is also less than thrilled about living in the small tourist town of Del Sol again. Even if it is home for her parents and she and Auri are in the guest house about fifty feet from their backdoor. She is also not thrilled about being the newly elected sheriff. Especially when she wasn’t even running for sheriff far as she knew. 

 

But, being elected in Del Sol when you are not even running for sheriff is not the strangest thing to happen in Del Sol as Sunshine Vicram well knows. She has been gone for nearly fifteen years and now that she is back, she is reminded again that Del Sol has a sun that never quits and neither does the strange.

 

While her fourteen year old daughter deals with her first day at Del Sol High School, Sunshine Vicram arrives at the station in her full uniform to see what her first day will bring. It soon brings a visit from the Mayor and a basket of muffins. The mayor is a problem, but nothing she can’t handle at this point. The muffins are another and, according to everyone else, a far more serious problem. Homemade by Ruby Moore, they certainly look and smell good. Ruby Moore can certainly bake as all can attest. The problem is that when she sends in food, trouble always follows. It does not matter if they eat the delicious offering or not, trouble is coming. They just do not know it yet.

 

Minutes after consuming the delicious goodness, they soon find out that they have a major problem on their hands. Wealthy new resident Mrs. St. Aubin reports that her daughter, Sybil, same age as Auri, is missing. She vanished during the night. Mrs. St. Aubin woke up this morning and realized that her daughter was missing. Having searched the house in an increasing panic she came to town in a full panic looking for help. If that is not enough, then comes word that an incarcerated prisoner known for kidnapping has escaped custody and could be in the area. Are the two situations linked? Does he have Sybil? Or is something else going on?

 

At about the same time as her Mom has her hands fill with her job, Auri has her hands full with her own issues at school. Being the daughter of the newly elected sheriff on top of being the new girl in school comes with a lot of pressure. A number of her fellow classmates are being less than welcoming. Three or four are being downright hostile as they take a page of the mean girls playbook. Her first day is turning into a real doozy and just like her Mom’s situation, thiings are only going to escalate.

 

A Bad Day for Sunshine: A Novel by Darynda Jones is a really good book. It reminds this reader of J. A. Janice’s Sheriff Joanna Brady series with considerably more humor and a tad more romantic intrigue. It shifts at the start of each chapter as well as occasionally in a chapter between Sunshine and Auri as they deal with various events and situations. The backstory, told through memories and dialogue discussions, is very complicated and applies to both Auri and Sunshine.

 

At its heart, it is still a police procedural in many ways and that fact is not sidelined by the backstory, the personal dramas, and potential romantic entanglements. Plenty is at work in A Bad Day For Sunshine: A Novel is a fun and fast read that lays an excellent foundation for the series. A Good Day for Chardonnay is currently scheduled to be released in late July 2021.

 

A Bad Day for Sunshine: A Novel by Darynda Jones is strongly recommended. 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4aFiYqE

 

My large print reading copy came from the Lakewood Branch of the Dallas Public Library System. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020, 2025

Happiness Is A Book: If It Isn’t One Thing by Steven F. Havill

 Happiness Is A Book: If It Isn’t One Thing by Steven F. Havill

Publication Day Review: If It Isn’t One Thing… A Posadas County Mystery by Steven F. Havill

If It Isn’t One Thing… A Posadas County Mystery by Steven F. Havill is the latest read in the excellent and long running series. I have loved this series for decades now and a new read is always big time celebrated in this house. This one is another mighty good book and strongly recommended.

 

In a more far less traveled part of Posadas County, New Mexico, an 18-wheeler and a horse trailer have collided and the crash is very bad. Trapped in the mangled wreckage is what remains of a truck that was towing a horse trailer. In the crash, the horse was ejected and has a severe gash down a rear leg. The horse is hurt, but alive. The same can not be said for the driver of the truck who very clearly is dead. He was crushed in the crash and it is going to take a long time and a lot of work.

 

The 18-wheeler was hauling a full load of fire wood. That driver is clearly drunk as he wanders around the wreckage. A scene made worse by the fac that the entire cargo of firewood is now dumped up and down the highway.

 

Six miles north of the village of Posadas, New Mexico, the only thing really out there is the local landfill which closed hours ago. It is the middle of the night on a cold November night, so nobody should really need to come through on that road. But, thanks to police scanners and the local grapevine, folks are showing up in large numbers thereby making things far more complicated than Posadas County Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman expected.

 

So too is the backstory of what was going on with the vehicles and their drivers in the days leading up to the brutal and tragic collision. It wasn’t just the fact that one driver clearly ran a stop sign. There were dominoes that fell in order leading up to the crash which also soon caused a significant ripple effect beyond the fate of the two drivers. As the soon to be retired Undersheriff discovers, death was a part of things long before this grisly scene. The case will reach into the Dakotas, down into Mexico, numerous places in-between, and tax her and her small department in many ways.

 

This latest in the long running series is another great read. As I have said, this series has been a favorite of mine going back decades. As it was for my parents who were also major fans of it as they eagerly read every installment long ago. At some point, I know it will end, but I hold out hope that a series that has literally provided a comfortable escape from the real world, will continue for more books. I need them. We all need them.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3B6Mg20

 

My reading copy came by way of the publisher, Severn House, through NetGalley and with no expectation of a review.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

Lesa's Book Critiques: If It Isn’t One Thing… by Steven F. Havill

 Lesa's Book Critiques: If It Isn’t One Thing… by Steven F. Havill

Review: Perfect Opportunity: A Posadas County Mystery by Steven F. Havill

 

It is always a thrill when the latest Posadas County Mystery arrives in my hands. I have been a fan for many years now. When Sandi was fighting cancer, Mr. Havill’s series was a listening request. I would read the new book to her as she laid in hospital beds in the main infusion room and her own isolated hospital room. Steven F. Havill, Bill Crider, and a few other authors helped us both cope with what was happening in our lives.

 

The latest in this very good series, Perfect Opportunity: A Posada County Mystery, spends considerable time with former Sheriff Bill Gastner. That is a very special treat as it the series began with him long ago in Heartshot.

 

As the book opens, it is the day after Bill Gastner’s 87th birthday. While he is still mobile, he does so with some technological help these days. One of which is a four-wheel drive wheelchair that allows him freedom of movement. He has no intention at all from moving from his adobe home in Posadas County in Southeastern New Mexico. Certainly not to some retirement home near his daughter’s house in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

 

He had woken early, just after four in the morning and decided he was going to go for a drive and see what was what. The former sheriff is legendary for his driving around at all hours of the day and night keeping an eyeball on things. He ends up taking along with him Carlos Guzman. It has been a year since the vicious event that nearly killed himself and his finance, Tasha Qarshe. (That event takes up the majority of No Accident and is briefly referenced here.) He is making progress in rehab, but healing is slow and Francisco says his brother is not sleeping well. Getting him out and about for a bit to take his mind off things might help somewhat.

 

Gastner likes the idea and goes to go get him. Son of Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman, Carlos, soon joins him in his old Suburban. After driving around for a bit, they come across a traffic stop. It is 5:27 in the morning and Deputy Lydia Thompson has pulled over a Ram crew cab truck. Something strikes both Gastner and Carlos as being off so they circle back to check. Deputy Lydia Thompson is new to the area and far from her northeastern roots, but she is fitting in well with everyone. She assures them everything is fine.

 

Gastner has a lot of time later to consider what he saw, when the owner of the truck as well as another person, are found murdered at the side of the read in the same area the next day. Coincidence? Probably not.

 

What follows is a complicated and a thoroughly enjoyable read. Gastner is heavily involved as is the incredible Nightzone project introduced long ago in the book by the same name. Numerous secondary characters that have long made this series the quality read that has been for decades return here. There is also the usual level of mystery and the author’s love for the beauty of the New Mexico landscape. Perfect Opportunity: A Posadas County Mystery by Steven F. Havill is the latest very good read in a long series well worth your time. It is strongly recommended.

 
 

Amazon Associate Link: https://amzn.to/4b6PTCt

 

 

My reading copy came as a digital arc from the publisher, Severn House, by way of NetGalley with no expectations of a review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2024

Happiness Is A Book: PERFECT OPPORTUNITY BY STEVEN HAVILL

 Happiness Is A Book: PERFECT OPPORTUNITY BY STEVEN HAVILL

Review: A Hard Day for a Hangover by Darynda Jones

  

A Hard Day for a Hangover by Darynda Jones is the third book in the series that began with A Bad Day For Sunshine. Things remain very unsettled as Sunshine Vicram has told Levi Ravinder that he is a father and the man up and disappeared. The fact that he took her deputy’s patrol car, said Deputy is Quincy Copper who also happens to be her best friend, is another issue that could cost the new sheriff of Del Sol New Mexico her job. If that is not enough, Sunshine and Quincy are looking at some sort of assault as the book starts.

 

Doug Pettyfer apparently flashed the wrong person as he has a knitting needle firmly implanted in his neck while he sits in the local medical center. He claims a gang attacked him, but considering Del Sol is a small tourist town in the middle of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, gangs aren’t an issue. Doug keeps talking and with every statement it is clear he is lying about what he was doing, where he was at, and how he got impaled.

 

Sheriff Sunshine Vicram and her team do not have time for Doug’s nonsense. They have two missing people to find.

 

One is Levi and it has been two days since he stole (or borrowed in Sunshine’s mind) the cruiser. After all, the car was quickly recovered, so it was just temporally borrowed.

 

Clay Ravinder needs to be found and put into protective custody before Levi finds him and settles some things. The reason Levi is looking for him is complicated and ties into the previous books of the series and therefore is a spoiler.

 

All that and a couple of other things are already going on when Deputy Salazer informs her that they may have a body out at Copper Canyon. Drew Essary was out hunting and spotted it through binoculars. The body is on an incline deep in the canyon. He was going to try and reach it, but doing so will cut him off from cell service. Salazer is headed out to cordon off the area and Vicram and Cooper will respond with their rappelling gear.

 

It isn’t long before they receive word that dead body is not dead. The person is a badly injured female in her late teens or early twenties. Rescuing her and then finding out what happened to her drives the novel forward alongside several complicated secondary story lines that have been playing out this entire series.

 

A book and a series that is very good and well worth your time. Because A Hard Day for a Hangover by Darynda Jones resolves several things that have been going on in various secondary storylines, it is best to read in order, starting with the first book. You will be glad you did.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3MtXTpa

 

My reading copy came courtesy of an ARC through NetGalley.

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2022

FFB Review: Come Dark by Steven Havill-- Reviewed by Aubrey Nye Hamilton

Back in late April 2017, Aubrey started contributing guest reviews. As I have long said, you could make quite the reading list just off the reviews she contributes here. Add in the books she reviews at her own place, Happiness Is A Book, and you are very well set. Her first one here, reprinted below, was on an installment of one of my favorite series. I very much liked this read in the series, probably because I love planetariums, telescopes, and all things space related. This place would be awesome to visit if it actually existed. The power of fiction to make things feel real is very evident in the read. If you have not read this series, you really should.

 

Come Dark by Steven F. Havill (Poisoned Pen Press, 2016) is the 21st title in the Posadas County contemporary mystery series. Set in fictional Posadas County, New Mexico, a few miles from the Mexico border, this series began with Undersheriff Bill Gastner as the protagonist and shifted in the 10th title to Estelle Reyes-Guzman, originally a detective in the sheriff’s office who later moved up in rank. Books 16 and 18, according to the publication dates, feature Gastner again, as Havill decided to go back in time to expand on some of the characters’ history in those stories. Otherwise each book builds logically on the previous books. 

Havill’s entry on Stop! You’re Killing Me sorts the books in chronological sequence according to the story line, not the publication date. Readers new to the series might find this list helpful. And yes, it is possible to read each book as a stand-alone. Havill is adept at sketching enough backstory for the reader to grasp context and characterization. However, these books are so good that it is not likely anyone will want to read just one.

In this latest entry, the huge astronomy park rancher Miles Waddell is building inches closer to completion, with the train that will convey visitors finished enough to allow journalists and local politicians to ride to the top of the mountain where the park is sited. However, the park’s massive satellite dish falls victim to the anonymous graffiti artist who has been decorating the schools and other buildings in town. In addition, one of the patrolling officers runs a routine check on a car with an out-of-state license plate to learn the plate is not on the vehicle it’s registered to and the people in the car don’t have a good explanation. On the same day the young wife of a banker walks into a big box store, leaving her baby and puppy in a hot car with the windows closed, and does not return. To spread the staff of the Sheriff’s Office even thinner, the high school custodian goes to the school Saturday to clean up after the big game the night before and finds the body of the coach in the showers. With multiple visible gunshot wounds, the cause of death is not in question. On the homefront Estelle’s mother is celebrating a milestone birthday and Francisco, Estelle’s musical genius of a son, arrives unexpectedly from the conservatory where he is studying to participate. Bill Gastner is still recovering from the hip fracture incurred in the previous book.

All of the usual characters are present, if a couple of them are only mentioned by the others. For instance, Estelle doesn’t want to bring Linda Real, the department photographer, to the crime scene because she is in the last stages of pregnancy and Estelle thinks there’s no need for her take chances. New officers and some temporary personnel bring a sense of realism to the department, which is perennially short-staffed and underfunded as any rural sheriff’s office is likely to be.

The plot lines unfold in a coherent manner; pacing is smooth and unrushed. My only quibble here is with the subplot involving Francisco, the musical prodigy, and it isn’t intrinsic to the story. Highly recommended, as is the entire series.

Series: Posadas County Mysteries (Book 21)

Hardcover: 308 pages

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (April 5, 2016)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1464205256

ISBN-13: 978-1464205255

 

Aubrey Hamilton ©2017, 2022

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal IT projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Review: No Accident: A Posadas County Mystery by Steven F. Havill

No Accident: A Posadas County Mystery by Steven F. Havill opens with Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman dealing with the aftermath of a brutal bar fight at the Broken Spur Saloon. Johnny Rabke is drunk and bleeding heavily, a tourist family of four is traumatized, and the unconscious combatant on the floor is Pablo Ramirez. He had pulled out a knife after exchanging insults, Johnny Rabke had swung a pool cue at least once, and had also ended the fight by throwing a billiard ball and nailing Ramirez in the right side of his head.

That fight and the charges and everything around all that becomes secondary as does life in Posadas when she gets a midnight call from her son, Francisco. Her first thought is that something has happened to her grandson but she can hear him in the background and so she knows he is okay. Instead, the call is about her other son, Carlos, and his wife, Tasha.

Francisco explains that Carlos and Tasha were on their tandem bike out in California and were run down. Both have suffered series injuries and are in the Temerly Trauma Treatment Center in Briones, California. Tasha is doing a little bit better than Carlos who is still in surgery and in a very bad way. Francisco and his family are headed to the airport in New York to board their private jet. They plan to fly to Posadas and pick up mom and dad, Estelle and her husband, Dr. Francis Guzman, and go to California to be there for Carlos and Tasha.

Before long the entire group is on the ground in California. As it happens, Eddie Mitchell is a captain with the Briones Police Department and supervising the investigation as it is clear that this was no simple hit and run. This was definitely attempted murder. Not only were they run over once, the driver backed up and hit them a second time. Not only does he want Estelle and the family to be fully supported as they await to see if Carlos survives his life-threatening injuries, Mitchell is determined to find the guilty party or parties and get them off the street and in custody.

To do that, he is going to walk a tightrope as he wants Estelle’s help, but she has no authority in California. He also knows how she is and does not want her independently pursuing her own lines of inquiry or doing anything that could give a defense lawyer ammunition at trial. Things get more complicated quickly as a body is found that could be tied into the case.

What follows is a complicated read that shifts back and forth from the hospital and the patients to the actual investigation of the crime. While there are the occasional brief contacts with the folks back home, the vast majority of the novel takes place out in California. Along the way, the author spends considerable time on family dynamics, the predatory behavior of some men towards women, and other issues as the investigation moves forward on multiple fronts. It is not until the last chapter and the final eight pages that the initial event that started the book is resolved.

Overall, while not the best read in this long running series, No Accident: A Posadas County Mystery was entertaining and enjoyable. Though the tale was interesting, this reader missed the New Mexico setting which is often so effectively used a character in its own right. This reader was also frequently reminded of the idea that it is good to have friends, but having plenty of money to deal with emergencies helps too. So too does having your own doctor in the family.

 

 

My print reading copy came by way of Aubrey Nye Hamilton to sent it to me after she had read it. Yet another way Aubrey does wonderful things for me and this blog. Thank you, Aubrey. As always. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2022

Review: A Good Day For Chardonnay: A Novel by Darynda Jones

A Good Day For Chardonnay: A Novel by Darynda Jones is the second read in the series that began in A Bad Day For Sunshine. It was in that book that readers were introduced to the quirky town of Del Sol, the newly elected sheriff Sunshine Vicram, and her family. While some things were resolved in that book, one major thing was not, and that continues here in a secondary story line.

 

One of several secondary storylines in a complicated and occasionally a laugh out loud read. In the main storyline, Levi Ravinder is involved in a serious altercation in the parking lot of the Roadhouse Bar and Grill. To say that Sunshine and Levi have history is to say the sun and the desert have a history. This night Levi was trying to stop three men who were beating and stabbing Keith Seabright. What Seabright was doing at the place, what his connection with Levi is, who the three men are, and other questions are questions she needs official answers to as fast as possible. All she knows for sure, based on what Levi is saying is that he is military of some type and had to drugged to be losing to his three assailants. Instead of going to the hospital as the clearly injured Levi should, he soon escapes custody and disappears into the night. Presumably headed north in pursuit of the three who left the scene in a truck.

 

As in the first book, relationships in and outside of family power this novel. Therefore, as many things from the first book continue here, it is not possible to discuss those things that drive forward the secondary storylines in this read.

 

Along the same vein, it is also not possible to discuss two glaring technical errors in the last fifty pages without creating spoilers. Suffice it to say, those of who have spent time in hospitals or know a thing or two about police vehicles, might be briefly and annoying jolted out of the world of the book.

 

That being said, this is a funny read that reminds this reviewer of the Sheriff Brady series by J.A. Jance with a lot more humor. This read also has a multi-page and graphic sex scene between two characters that may be too much for some readers. One did expect the romantic moment though this reader did not expect the graphic detail of the event. The read also has plenty of action, violence, misdirection, and mystery.

 

All in all, A Good Day for Chardonnay is a good read and ties up the primary storyline and several ongoing issues from the first book quite well. 

 

  

A Good Day For Chardonnay: A Novel

Darynda Jones

https://darynda.com/

St. Martin’s Press (MacMillan)

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250233110/a-good-day-for-chardonnay

July 2021

ISBN #978-1-250-23311-0

Hardback (also available in audio and eBook formats)

416 Pages 

 

My reading copy came from the Skyline Branch of the Dallas Public Library System. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2021

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Statute of Limitations by Steven Havill

Steven Havill’s police procedural series set in fictional Posadas County, New Mexico, has been among my all-time favorite mysteries for years. I discovered the series early when its lead character was Undersheriff Bill Gastner. After nine books, Havill acknowledged Gastner’s advancing age and retired him, shifting the focus to Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman. Gastner remains a constant presence in the background, serving as unofficial advisor to his former employees and as official godfather to Guzman’s two sons.

The change in protagonist added a domestic thread to the narrative arc without sacrificing its detection emphasis, as Guzman juggled a full-time job with erratic hours and family responsibilities. The stories with Gastner, a widower whose grown children are scattered, were always centered on his work. The prequels that Havill has produced offer additional insight to Gastner’s earlier life but by and large the Gastner books are strictly about the crimes of the moment.

In Statute of Limitations (Minotaur, 2006) Guzman is settling in for a happy Christmas Eve with her family when a call comes in for her doctor husband that requires him to leave. A short time later she’s called out for what appears to be an attack on the retired village chief of police. A couple of hours later she and Sheriff Bob Torrez are taking down a pair of thugs in the church where her mother and aunt attended Christmas Eve mass only hours earlier. Christmas morning she awakens to the news Torrez has relapsed from the injuries he suffered in the fall and is being airlifted to Albuquerque. Christmas afternoon brings the discovery of a body in an arroyo and in the evening Guzman finds Bill Gastner prone on his doorstep with a head injury, resulting in a Christmas that is far from merry for county law enforcement.

Guzman spends as much time monitoring medical reports as she does fielding a dismayingly thin force to probe a homicide that appears to have no apparent reason. The methodical investigation that leads to a completely unexpected motive while maintaining daily operations is one of the hallmarks of these stories. The realistic map of Posadas County, showing the towns and villages with landmarks and various state roads referenced in the books, is a wonderful gift to the reader. Highly recommended series, especially for fans of police procedurals.

 

·         Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (March 21, 2006)

·         Language: English

·         Hardcover: 304 pages

·         ISBN-10: 0312336306

·         ISBN-13: 978-0312336301

 

Aubrey Hamilton ©2020

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Review: A Bad Day For Sunshine: A Novel by Darynda Jones

Sunshine Vicram is back in Del Sol, New Mexico, with her teenage daughter, Aurora, better known as Auri. She is also less than thrilled about living in the small tourist town of Del Sol again. Even if it is home for her parents and she and Auri are in the guest house about fifty feet from their backdoor. She is also not thrilled about being the newly elected sheriff. Especially when she wasn’t even running for sheriff far as she knew.

 

But, being elected in Del Sol when you are not even running for sheriff is not the strangest thing to happen in Del Sol as Sunshine Vicram well knows. She has been gone for nearly fifteen years and now that she is back, she is reminded again that Del Sol has a sun that never quits and neither does the strange.

 

While her fourteen year old daughter deals with her first day at Del Sol High School, Sunshine Vicram arrives at the station in her full uniform to see what her first day will bring. It soon brings a visit from the Mayor and a basket of muffins. The mayor is a problem, but nothing she can’t handle at this point. The muffins are another and, according to everyone else, a far more serious problem. Homemade by Ruby Moore, they certainly look and smell good. Ruby Moore can certainly bake as all can attest. The problem is that when she sends in food, trouble always follows. It does not matter if they eat the delicious offering or not, trouble is coming. They just do not know it yet.

 

Minutes after consuming the delicious goodness, they soon find out that they have a major problem on their hands. Wealthy new resident Mrs. St. Aubin reports that her daughter, Sybil, same age as Auri, is missing. She vanished during the night. Mrs. St. Aubin woke up this morning and realized that her daughter was missing. Having searched the house in an increasing panic she came to town in a full panic looking for help. If that is not enough, then comes word that an incarcerated prisoner known for kidnapping has escaped custody and could be in the area. Are the two situations linked? Does he have Sybil? Or is something else going on?

 

At about the same time as her Mom has her hands fill with her job, Auri has her hands full with her own issues at school. Being the daughter of the newly elected sheriff on top of being the new girl in school comes with a lot of pressure. A number of her fellow classmates are being less than welcoming. Three or four are being downright hostile as they take a page of the mean girls playbook. Her first day is turning into a real doozy and just like her Mom’s situation, thiings are only going to escalate.

 

A Bad Day for Sunshine: A Novel by Darynda Jones is a really good book. It reminds this reader of J. A. Janice’s Sheriff Joanna Brady series with considerably more humor and a tad more romantic intrigue. It shifts at the start of each chapter as well as occasionally in a chapter between Sunshine and Auri as they deal with various events and situations. The backstory, told through memories and dialogue discussions, is very complicated and applies to both Auri and Sunshine.

 

At its heart, it is still a police procedural in many ways and that fact is not sidelined by the backstory, the personal dramas, and potential romantic entanglements. Plenty is at work in A Bad Day For Sunshine: A Novel is a fun and fast read that lays an excellent foundation for the series. A Good Day for Chardonnay is currently scheduled to be released in late July 2021.

 

A Bad Day for Sunshine: A Novel by Darynda Jones is strongly recommended. 

 

A Bad Day For Sunshine: A Novel

Darynda Jones

https://darynda.com/

Thorndike Press (Gale, a Cengage Company)

https://www.gale.com/thorndike/a-bad-day-for-sunshine/-/N-5p?Ntt=a+bad+day+for+sunshine||71995720630726485320191209204518924&Nr=205&Ntk=APG%7C%7CP_EPI

April 2020

ISBN #978-1-4328-7883-2

Large Print Hardback

616 Pages 

 

My reading copy came from the Lakewood Branch of the Dallas Public Library System. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020