On Borrowed Crime by Kate Young

Lyla Moody loves her sleepy little town of Sweet Mountain, Georgia. She likes her job as receptionist for her uncle's private investigative firm, her fellow true crime obsessed Jane Doe members are the friends she's always wanted, and her parents just celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. But recently, with her best friend Melanie on vacation, and her ex-boyfriend and horrible cousin becoming an item and moving in next door to her, her idyllic life is on the fritz. The cherry on top of it all is finding Carol, a member of the club, dead and shoved into a suitcase, left at Lyla's front door.

Unusual circumstances notwithstanding, with Carol's heart condition, the coroner rules Carol's death undetermined. But when they discover the suitcase belongs to Melanie, who had returned from her vacation the following morning, Sweet Mountain police begin to suspect Lyla's best friend. Determined that police are following the wrong trail, to clear her friend's name, and to not allow Carol become one of the club's studied cold cases, Lyla begins to seek out the real killer. That is, until she becomes the one sought after. Now, finding the truth could turn her into the killer's next plot twist, unless she wins the game of cat and mouse.

 

Series: Jane Doe Book Club Mystery #1 | Publisher: Crooked Lane Books | Genre: Cozy Mystery, Contemporary | Source: Publisher | Rating: 3.5 Cups

If you’re looking for a cozy mystery that borders on thriller/mystery then this is the book for you.

Here’s what’s going on. When one of the members of her Jane Doe book club discovers a connection to a cold case then ends up murdered, Lyla uses her job as receptionist at her Uncle’s P.I. firm to do some digging of her own. As her suspect list starts to include those around her, Lyla begins to wonder if there’s a killer in her midst. When the killer starts sending her taunting text messages, she knows she must find them before she becomes their next victim.

I picked this book up for review expecting it to be a lighter read like most cozy mysteries are but this one reads a bit darker in the mystery aspect. Unlike a cozy mystery, this one contains a lot of graphic details about the murder on the page. The mystery itself was more like something you see in a thriller yet I found it very easy to pick up on the killer and the reasoning from the start.

While the mystery and murder aspects are on the darker side, the characters, especially Lyla, have a cozy mystery feel. Lyla’s a little annoying at times but I’m hoping these are just teething problems as this was the start of a new series.

Overall, I enjoyed this one and look forward to reading the next in the series.