Essay about Tandem Demise by Duffy Brown
You have to give credit to any author who can maintain a series, but when they’re working on multiple series, you really have to give them credit.
Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
Duffy Brown is an excellent comedic write, but in this series, it really doesn’t come across. Sure there are some great lines and situations, but overall, the writing is missing something.
In the third installment of the Cycle Path Mysteries, Evie Bloomfield and her best friend, Fiona are debating whether the man they’ve discovered on the freight dock is actually dead, or if he’s “dead drunk” since he’s holding a champagne bottle.
What they don’t know is Mackinac Island police chief, Nate Sutter, is connected to the man from his days as an undercover cop in Detroit.
Nate’s past has followed him here to the island and after wedding planner Bladen Powers is shot on the day of Daniela Robertson Smithfield, Nate becomes the primary suspect. It’s also believed that Nate has stolen five million dollars in a champagne smuggling ring between Detroit and Windsor.
But did he do it? That’s what Evie has to find out.
And while Evie is trying to figure out who set Nate up, Brown somehow misses the humor that she’s known for.
The writing is fast and furious and I felt like she was trying too hard to find humor in almost every sentence. Unfortunately, the flow isn’t there.
Many times I was lost because there are two weddings mentioned and I kept getting them confused. One wedding is fine, but to have two with an almost similar storyline it was easy to get them confused.
It’s hard to say if this is the last installment in the series, but all in all, it’s a good series, but I would stick with the Consignment Mysteries (see past reviews here) because this is where Brown’s humor shines.
