This book started out great and stayed that way all the way through! Never knew what was going to happen next! Lot of twists and turns and surprises! Very enjoyable reading! Very well written and a great read. ( )

Julie is out for a run early one morning when she notices a swan boat on Lake Eola is loose and there’s a woman’s body in it. The police believe the woman slit her own wrist, but Julie can’t believe it, especially since Dianna seems to be urging Julie to solve her murder.

I had no idea when reading, that this was the second book in a series. I didn’t feel like I was missing part of the story, but I am now anxious for Amazon to come out with a Kindle version of the first book, Castle Cay.

Merlin, Julie’s working name, is a body language expert and she uses her ability when paired up with Joe, her private investigator boyfriend, to find the answers for Dianna’s parents. The things Julie is seeing when interviewing various people are shared with the reader to indicate if the person is lying, anxious, angry, etc, leading the reader to do their own speculating.

The story is filled with interesting characters, many of whom have a good reason to eliminate who we learn is a really nice person. The mystery grabbed me right away and one thing that struck me was how well the author used descriptions. That sounds like such an obvious thing that everyone does, but I thought the use was very well balanced between providing a detailed visual without overdoing it. ( )

This is the second book in the Julie O’Hara series, coming after “Castle Cay”. And to say that I was impressed is an understatement. I haven’t had the pleasure of reading “Castle Cay” and was worried that I might have a bit of trouble with this second novel, not knowing the characters or the author’s style. But I shouldn’t have worried. There will be no problem for you should you chose to start with this book as I did.

Julie O’Hara is a body language expert; one who has mainly worked with lawyers to aid in picking juries. Now Julie will be using her unique skills in solving what appears to all to be a suicide. After all, she is the first one to have found the victim and has seen the scene a little differently than the police did.

This novel had me hooked right from the start and the idea behind Julie and her career is a unique one (at least for me), since I’ve mainly only seen “body language experts” being used as secondary or tertiary characters. In my opinion this was a very fresh and clever way to leap into the mystery/suspense genre. This was plotted very tightly, with only just enough red herrings as was absolutely necessary. It took me by surprise when the true assailant was finally uncovered. The characters Julie and her boyfriend Joe, a private detective and her partner in this book, are engaging and very likeable.

The only flaw in this novel was that the dialogue between some of the characters seemed a bit stilted or stiff, but I think with further novels that issue will be cleared up.

Lee Hanson is an author to watch and I can’t wait to read the next novel in this series ( )