Customer Reviews

Scene of The Grime: A Grime Solvers Mystery

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

 

 

Recently widowed Sky Taylor moved to the small town of Pigeon Cove in Massachusetts where she writes a newspaper column and runs a cleaning business. Her business is thriving and she's made many friends in Pigeon Cove including her landlord Chloe Edwards and Abe Monahan, a frequent guest at the Millwood Bed and Breakfast, one of Sky's clients. Sky enjoys talking to "Old" Abe and when she hears he's back in town she gets to work early to say hello to him. But instead of saying hello she gets to say goodbye when she stumbles across his murdered body. Sky is devastated by Abe's death and her colleague on the newspaper, crime reporter Mike Ennis, seems all too willing to comfort her. Even though Sky begins to date Mike she's afraid he's dating her to get information about Abe's murder. While Sky wonders who could have killed Abe - one of the townspeople or one of the strangers that has recently appeared in town - she has problems of her own when someone steals her car. As she investigates the murder Sky begins to realize that Abe wasn't who she thought he was and that in life, unlike books, loose ends aren't always tied up.

"Scene of the Grime" is a nice light cozy mystery. Sky is a delightful heroine, making a new life for herself after the death of her husband. Her somewhat unorthodox and original cleaning tips add much to the humor in the book. Her reflections about her parents add much depth to her character and I loved that fact that she took in Abe's cat after he died. The other characters are equally well written, especially Sky's best friend, the slightly eccentric Chloe Edwards, who does a lot of volunteer work, is respected in town, and is addicted to reading mystery novels and watching Court TV. One very funny character is newspaper receptionist Pam DiGallucci, better known as The Digger because of her habit of digging into people's private lives. Mike is a nice complex character with secrets that aren't totally revealed in this book. There's a scene in the book where he and Sky go out to eat at his uncle's restaurant that is funny from beginning to end. Author Suzanne Price (pseudonym for Jerome Preisler and his wife Suzanne) does a good job of making the New England background come to life. As for the mystery itself, it's pretty obvious who the murderer is but it's fascinating to read the many secrets about Abe's life as they are revealed. The ending of the book is very sweet and will really make readers like Mike.

"Scene of the Grime" is well done.

Not the most engaging book of its type - the themed cozy - but fun and quick. Guess I don't find the cleaning tips all that engaging. Pretty well plotted and well drawn, engaging characters. I will read the next one. I'm betting they get better over time. Fewer feather dusters and more dialogue, please!

After she lost her husband to cancer, Sky Taylor left the big city to return home to Pigeon Cove, Massachusetts where she writes a cleaning lips column for the Cape Ann newspaper. She applies those same tips to clean homes, offices and bungalows in the area; because she is such a perfectionist she is in demand. In the time she has lived there she has made friends with Abel Monahan who also has a residence in Florida.

While she is cleaning the hallway outside Abe's room, Sky sees a hand print on the wall she hears his cat screaming. She opens the door and sees his dead body on the floor, blood still dripping from the blow to his head. She doesn't understand why anyone would kill such a dear old man who also cared about her nor does she know why two men staying in Abe's room are giving her the creeps especially or why they are following her around town. The newspaper reporter who has shown interest in her thinks he has answers if she believes him, but believing him will mean she never really knew Abe at all.

Readers will thoroughly enjoy SCENES OF THE GRIME (even the title is humorous), a rich focus on a heroine who compulsively cleans until everything shines. She is a special person and other characters as well as readers sense she is genuine. This is a delightful sassy tale filled with eccentric interesting characters that add to the whodunit. Told from Sky's perspective, readers learn a lot of cleaning tips that are not supposed to be used at a murder scene like she does. Suzanne Price provides a delightful grime cleaning (make that crime cleaning) amateur sleuth.

Harriet Klausner

This is a fun little book that take a bright look at life in a small town. You'll probably recognize some of the characters. The cleaning tips are an extra bonus. I read it all in just two sittings. I'll be looking for Sky Taylor's next mystery.

Still trying to get through this book but keep putting it down. A little slow, stagnant.

I read this book while traveling, and it fit right in with my other cozy mysteries. (Daheim, Hart, Mott-Davidson and others) I always catch a few misprints, as I read, and generally find times when I disagree with word usage, punctuation, and "just plain" grammar, but I don't hold those against the author. This book was a pleasant choice for a quick, fun adventure, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys "escape fiction" as I definitely do. I will be looking forward to the next book in what I hope will be a great new series.

I enjoyed Kathy Hogan Trocheck's "maid service" mysteries so was looking forward to starting this one. And I need some new series to read.

The book wasn't bad, just sort of forgettable.

The mystery had some interesting twists. The characters--not so much. It isn't that I disliked them or even that they were not fleshed out--they were. Unfortunately, they were also kind of boring. Which fits in with the slow pace of the book.

Sky is a young widow who has taken up housekeeping (with a part time job as columnist for a local paper, but I'm not sure what she writes about) as a career. She is a little OCD about dirt which could make the stories cute and interesting, but doesn't really.

Her small town includes Chloe (an older woman who is Sky's best friend), Stu the bookseller, Mike the journalist, and a few others (since this is the first of the series, I don't know if they continue throughout).

I haven't decided if I will continue with the series and see if it gets better or move on. It's that kind of book.

I found Scene of the Grime to be tedious reading. I wanted the
story to continue without all the cleaning tips, though I
realise that with a book subtitled "A Grime Solvers Mystery"
there had to be some cleaning involved.

I enjoy reading cozy style mysteries, it's unfortunate that
this is not one of them.