Customer Reviews

Death In The Cards: A Stain-Busting Mystery

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In Paradise, Ohio, Josie Toadfern is a laundromat owner and the local stain removal expert. This time, instead of a bake competition piling up bodies, it is a psychic fair.

Josie has rented out the second apartment over her laundromat to a couple that owns the New Age bookshop and Tarot Card reading room in town. The Paradise Psychic Fair is coming up and soothsayers seem to be everywhere. One even tells Josie that danger approaches.

Major tension fills the air as the more conservative town residents go head-to-head with the New Age groups. Then, you guessed it, Josie literally stumbles across a body.

**** If you enjoyed "Death By Deep Dish Pie" then you will love this one as well. This mystery is a bit easier to figure out than Sharon Short's last, but readers will still find it challenging. Very good reading here. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

A psychic fair, a corn maze, a murder AND stain tips...another great read from Sharon Short! Josie's finally coming into her own, her friends are a hoot, and I can't wait to see what happens with Owen. Looking forward to Sharon's next book!

The plot line wasn't bad and the pace was very good but the writing was disappointing. The repartee wasn't remotely scintillating and the remainder of the language had little or no spark. There wasn't enough character development though I must admit I believe that was because the author had to keep within a word limit on the writing. Josie, the main character, has interesting and colorful friends and the situation she has with her significant other is intriguing. I imagine the second book in the series will be better. If it isn't I won't buy the third but this author deserves two chances.

I enjoyed the first two books of this series, but this one just didn't do it for me.

The book takes place in a small town in Ohio, so I'm not sure why the book felt like it was set in the south. I recently read a book with a setting of Greensboro, NC and I felt like these characters were an extension of the ones in that book. It definitely didn't set the book in Ohio, in my mind.

I also found the story itself to be very confusing because of the number of characters involved. Between the locals and the psychics, there were just too many secondary characters to keep track of.

I hope the next installment is better.

This is the third book in this series and once again hits the spot.

Okay? What was the point of this book? Because after I got through reading it, I failed to see the "big picture" that Sharon Short was trying to convey.

I'm an avid book reader. If a book reaches out and immeditely grabs my attention, I usually can finish it within 2 days.

I had to force myself to simply pick up, "Death In The Cards."

Sharon Short, doesn't write a story that flows...instead she writes a book that gives a lot of explanations. For example, in one chapter she explains that there's only two jail cells in the building. Who cares?

A writer should have a "method to their madness." This book consists of rambling and things that merely do not make sense.

There were entirely too many characters, and they also lacked diversity.

I almost forgot that I was reading a mystery/suspense thriller.

But, on a positive note, I'm glad that Sharon Short got published.