Volunteer for Murder
Mystery
E-Book File Size: 347 KB
Print Length: 182 pages
ASIN: B004I43TKM
When Vera Hobart stumbles into the soup kitchen, most folks think she’s drunk. When they take a closer look though, they realize that she’s been stabbed. As volunteers Seth Jackson and Gillian Graywolf dig into the murder, they find more than they ever could have imagined, or bargained for.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
I was looking for a book to complete my Alphabet Soup Challenge and found this book by Tim Myers. I have enjoyed books he has written as himself and under his various pseudonyms so I grabbed this one.
When Vera Hobart is killed the police turn immediately to the homeless community the soup kitchen serves for suspects because the knife used looks like one Penny, a soup kitchen regular carries. When Penny doesn’t show up that day for her meal it makes her look even more guilty. Seth, a retired cop and Gillian can’t believe Penny would kill anyone and with the help of a homeless man, Penny’s friend Ace, they are going to prove it.
Myers takes us into the homeless world but also into Vera’ Hobart’s richer world where they find quite a few more suspects. He has created characters with many layers. I really enjoyed Seth and Gillian’s relationship. Gillian’s father was a cop too and he taught her well. The make a fantastic investigating team much to the dislike of the detective assigned to the case. Seth retired early from the force after he had been shot on the job and that happened around the same day his first wife passed away and you can tell the wounds are still deep. The rest are the characters are fully developed too.
Tim Myers is an expert at keeping us readers guessing.I changed my mind on the guilty party several times.
He does add this caveat an the Amazon for this book: This traditional mystery is just a little racier than my standard fare, but it still should be acceptable to many of my cozy readers! and he is right but it was more than acceptable. I really enjoyed this story. This is a stand alone book but I would love to revisit Seth and Gillian when they return from their vacation. This book was written back in 2011 so that is probably pretty unlikely. I an glad I “met” them for this story.

Find out more about Tim Myers and his stories on his webpage here.
*This book was from my personal collection.