Design on a Crime

I really enjoyed this book but it kind of stretched the limits on being realistic. A doctor AND a pastor both break confidentiality to talk about someone? And the doctor does it twice, the first time without even being asked.
Aside from that, it was pretty good. Not sure about the almost-friendship between Detective Tsu and the heroine, but I suppose it could happen. I love the tension with Dutch. Can't wait to see what happens there.

Haley Farrell has just graduated from design school and opened her business. Her first client is in the process of bidding on an historic mansion and brought Haley along to give advice on other pieces to purchase. She is introduced to the general contractor for the project who has a shady reputation. During the break, the auctioneer and Haley's good friend goes missing. Haley finds her body and promptly passes out. When it is revealed that Marge's husband has been passed over and Haley has inherited everything, she becomes prime suspect. Haley has insecurity and trust problems dating from a violent incident 4 years prior and lost her faith. The book spends equal portions on finding the killer and finding her faith. A little too show more religious for me. Will probably not search for more volumes. show less

This story started off a little shaky - verb tenses kept changing, the character of Haley was kindof weird, and the story seemed too shallow. But then the editing got better, the storyline found its direction, and Haley started to seem more real. Not a bad cozy mystery.

So this book had some really great points but also I think that the christian references in the murder mystery were a little overkill. I know silly me for not realizing that the book was a christian fiction and even if I would have known I probably would have read the book.

The fact is the MC was great, funny, and I really liked her but the trouble was all the Christian reference and who really killed the lady was a little crazy to me. Not that I would not recommend the book I just think you have to be able to tell a story if you are going to use Christianity in a book and it did not fit well with this one.

The story was just about okay but the overlying God aspects became too much, too sugary, and really spoilt the tale for me.

This was a good detective "who did it" story. Haley Farrell has just started her on interior design business. As she is working on her first assignment she finds herself as the prime suspect in a murder case. The victim is her good friend, Marge Norwalk. Haley realizes that she is going to have to prove her own innocence. She finds many possible suspects, but I never suspected who the real murderer was till the very end!! This book had many other characters in the story, all who I came to appreciate and look forward to reading the next book in this series.

The book has a good storyline but the only characters I ended up liking were Tyler Tedd and her dad. Other than that the characters all lost their appeal. I will say the ending was a surprise. I found that tthis is a book I would not read again nor would I continue the series. It just wasn't for me.