A review by halellery
Murder Offstage by L.B. Hathaway

adventurous funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

So-so for a first book in a series. Posie is a likeable enough lead, although at times she was 'sure' of things and declared other things as 'making no sense' without providing me with logical reasoning to back herself up. That smelled a bit too much of plot-no-jutsu for my liking. 
There wasn't much of a mystery, in that we always kinda knew who the killer was. The job was to get to him. And for me that worked well enough. (Because I've had it up to here with Agatha Christie wannabes who are marketed as having written the next best mystery ever — only to flop a hundred pages in. It's panful to read of MCs blundering about, unable to figure out something so obvious, it's liable to poke my eyes out. #end rant#)
The pacing and the structure worked well enough to keep me involved, and I listened to this in one sitting.
There was a sprinkle of romance, but no more than a sprinkle, and thank god for that. It was easy enough to ignore.
Also, the resolution of the romance in the next book was good. Not the usual saccharine thing. Bloody Len.