Hollywood Homicide

Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett is a 2017 Midnight Ink publication.

Amusing and highly entertaining!

Dayna, an out of work actress, is in desperate need of money- not just so she can eat, but because her parents need her help. When she witnesses a hit and run, and discovers there is a sizeable reward for information leading to an arrest- Dayna turns amateur detective in hopes of claiming the reward money.

She soon discovers the case could be connected to a recent spate of crimes in Hollywood- which sends her on a madcap mission to find a murderer. It’s a grand adventure until Dayna becomes a target...

I found this book on Scribd and liked the sound of it. The ratings were solid, so I decided to give it a try- and hit pay dirt. A show more light, very funny, mystery with great characters, some surprise twists, against a Hollywood backdrop. Dayna is hysterical, the pacing is brisk, and the story is entertaining all the way around.

Yes, it checks all the ‘cozy’ mystery boxes, but anyone who likes humorous mysteries will enjoy this one.

Looking forward to the follow up!

4 stars show less

As the opening salvo of a new series, this is a sparkler. Cute, snappy, fun, and a little sassy / tongue-in-cheek are definitely great ways to describe this one.

I really liked Day (short for Dayna), a recognizable face from a once-popular commercial who now struggles for work (and money) once the ad campaign moved on.

Day decides to dabble in detective work because she's in a tight financial spot and sees a billboard with an offer of reward money for a tip that leads to an arrest. At first she plays private eye for the money, and then she discovers she enjoys and is pretty good at the gig. Joined by her two BFF girlfriends, plus a now-famous, long-time guy friend from high school, and a rogue cop, she cuts a swath through Hollywood show more trying to figure out a hit-and-run and in the process, nabbing a theft ring (aka the Rack Pack) that steals clothes, shoes, and jewelry, from young, rich celebrities.

There are a lot of pop culture / Hollywood-ish Easter Eggs and name drops to be a playful send-up of this glittery world, including a Hollywood blogger's weekly blind item that everyone frantically tries to guess, the do-anything-for-PR crowd, red-carpet premiere walking, luxe brands, locations, and more.

This isn't high-brow fiction and doesn't pretend to be. It's a fun just-insidery-enough read with great characters and it sparkles with flair like a faux-gemstone statement ring and animal print stilettos. Stands alone, even though intended as first in a series.

Recommended--who doesn't need some Day in their life?! show less

This was a freebie I received at Bouchercon 2018 (the author was there, but I never met her and have no obligation to her or Midnight Ink). When I saw this on the freebie table, I immediately grabbed it because it was obviously a cozy mystery, the first in a new series, and I've been looking for new series. It was also an obvious fit for for the bingo Diverse Authors square and the back of the book made it sound like a great read right up my alley. It was ticking all the boxes.

Ok, so maybe not quite all the boxes, as it turns out. There was a lot to like in this book and I think Garrett has found a unique niche for Day's investigations - the refreshingly mercenary angle of "doing it for the money", i.e. investigating the crimes the show more police are offering reward money for. But there were also a few things that dragged the story down and left me feeling less than enthusiastic.

What I didn't like:
The story was too long and the pace dragged. Every scene was just too detailed and long. A tighter editing process would, I think, have helped a lot without losing any of the story and it would have given the book a snappier pace.

One of the characters, the brains/girl with all the cool gadgets, spoke in text speak. All the time. Do people actually speak in text speak? Because if those people actually exist, they should be smacked about until real words come out of their mouths. It was annoying as hell reading it; I can't imagine remaining calm if someone started speaking it to me.

Slightly less annoying, although only because it's such a frequent device I've become numb to it over time, is the MC never seeing a conclusion she wasn't ready to jump to. At least the author set her up to do it with a believable amount of desperation as a motivation.

What I did like were all the strong female characters; even the shallow ones were likeable and the friendships came across as believable and relatable. I liked Day, the MC, too. Her life is a mess, but she knows it; she has her head on straight, and even though she has a few too many TSTL moments, I found myself cheering her on. I liked the plot too, though it would have been so much better for having had a tighter editing and fewer conclusion jumps. As a reader, I should never lose count of how many people the protagonist has accused of a crime.

Overall, I think the author has a lot of talent for writing mysteries with a solid cast of characters. A stronger editing would have made this a much better book though, and ffs, lose the text speak.

I read this for the Diverse Voices Square for Halloween Bingo. show less

So the writer has a really good voice for the narrator. She's funny and smart (about some things) and I appreciated the diversity of the cast. But I think I might just be over the amateur sleuth genre. The narrator was also dumb and reckless and pretty clueless in her relationships. If you enjoy Stephanie Plum (which I did for a few books but eventually the lack of any improvement in her chosen field wore too thin), you'll likely enjoy this book as well. I just wanted to like it more.

This isn't my usual mystery subgenre, and I don't think it will become that either. I don't get along with the cozy contemporary tone very well. I didn't quite understand how our main character has 3 bucks to her name to get gas with at the start and then continues to drive around and survive without a job the rest of the book? Fun group of friends at the center of this, even in the mystery was a giant circle.

Maybe too much Hollywood and I don’t care.

2.5 rounded up.