I probably need to state up front that I am not a hard core mystery fan. I do enjoy the occasional read especially a little Arthur Conan Doyle or even a Mickey Spillane I usually tend to science fiction or fantasy but at my heart I like any well written book. So I took up Charity Kills by Jon Bridgewater with an open mind and no expectations. When I set it down I had mixed feelings. The book had high points the author obviously knew his city of Houston and its history well and a mystery set in the charity Rodeo event was not your usual place for a murder to take place but it had it failings as well. There was no big surprise as to who the killer was and their motivations seemed a little trite.
Add to that, that the main character ,a detective storm, who was a once great police officer who was dealing with the death of his wife was a character we had seen before and he was joined by a group of people helping him which took away time that he might have developed into a unique character. There were some notable characters including a young woman who is instrumental in helping solve the case but is seen for far to short of time.
over all if you are fan of murder mysteries I think it would be worth picking up and checking out but don’t expect to be surprised or amazed. I do think that the author shows promise and would pick up another of his titles if I came across it.
