Botched 4 Murder
by J. C. Eaton
If you like your cozy mysteries with a heavy dose of humor, look no farther than J. C. Eaton’s Botched 4 Murder. Once more, Sophie, who works as an accountant for Williams Investigations, gets dragged into a Sun City West murder investigation by her mother, Harriet, who insists she use her connections to help solve a crime. The main thread is finding the murderer of Sorrel, an eco-activist who wants to change many of the community’s golf courses to neighborhood parks, a very unpopular cause with Harriet and many members of the community, mostly seniors and snowbirds, who are concerned about their privacy, their property values, and crime rates. Was Sorrel murdered because of her activism in this issue or were other factors at play?
This cozy mystery rapidly becomes and stays complicated with quite a number of threads. Sophie has trouble saying no, and she finds herself physically in danger. Her boss, Nate, and her boyfriend and coworker, Marshall, urge her to stay out of the investigation for her own safety, but they have to admit that she gets more information from her informal interviews than they do as private investigators. The whole book is peppered with humor, mainly centering around Harriet and the other seniors who tend to dramatize everything and oil the wheels of the rumor mill.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Kensington Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #4 in the Sophie Kimball Mystery Series, but, due to the author’s efforts and the nature of the book, it works well as a standalone.
Publication: December 18, 2018—Kensington Books
Memorable Lines:
Thank goodness I was at the other end of a phone line because my eyes were rolling around in their sockets like balls on a roulette wheel.
“The venom went through that guy like prep medicine for a colonoscopy.”
“I already made plans. With my mother and her friends. Bagels ’N More. You’re more than welcome to join me.” “And what? Get interrogated because we haven’t solved Sorrel’s murder yet? No thanks. The Salem Witch Trials would’ve paled in comparison to what I imagine tonight’s conversation will be like.”
education pathways 
This series has a lot o f humor. I enjoyed it immensely.
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Me too. My VPN subscription has expired. I am waiting on my husband to rectify that situation as it is under his name. Meanwhile I just realized that I can post comments on my blog, even if I can’t post on yours. Duh! It still makes no sense that you are the only person whose blog I can’t comment on when I am in Mexico. Very strange!
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It might do etching on my blog. I need to update it and I dread the time I need to spend doing it. I don’t want to be done by a commercial outlet as that doesn’t made it mine.
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Well, certainly don’t do it on my account. I seem to be the only one with a problem commenting on your blog. I’ll work that out; we tried to renew yesterday and got charged for it, but something seems to have messed up with the order. I think it is going to take a phone call which we dread. As to your blog, I wouldn’t change it if it is still working. I have heard of nightmares when people were forced into a change because WordPress no longer supported their theme. It took multiple phone calls to get it straightened out.
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This sounds like another winner in this series. I have only read the first one, but I need to catch up soon. Great review Linda.
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Thanks. I love the humor in the series. The humor, but not the plot, is predictable in a satisfying sort of way.
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