Murder and More by Gerald Darnell

4 Stars

I was contacted by Gerald Darnell for a review of his new book in his Carson Reno series. Thank you again for the request! I really appreciate all the authors who get in touch with me to ask me to review their book; I feel very privileged!

The book follows Carson on a new mystery where he has been contacted by a Mrs Ava Beaumont to hire Carson to collect some information to use against her husband in divorce proceedings. Carson agrees to do the work and sets on his way to collect said information. On arriving in New Orleans and being contacted by the man (Donovan Tanner) holding the information, Carson heads on down to the meeting place where he finds an associate tied up who was also looking for the same information. With Mr Tanner missing and the information along with him, Carson decides to head on back to Memphis. Following his journey home, Carson finds himself in the middle of much more than divorce proceedings; murder, blackmail and mistaken identities follow. 

I was certainly not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did, not that I expected Darnell to write a terrible book. The book is set in the 1960s and I had no idea whether I would fully appreciate or enjoy this book as much as some people would. As I was reading through however, I didn't feel as though I was in the 1960s. I didn't really notice that Carson and his associates weren't using modern technology and even though there was plenty of reference to older style cars from the era, I liked that the book had a modern writing stance but kept the storyline in line with the 1960s; the writing completely flowed throughout and was a nice easy read - I prefer easy reads with a great storyline rather than making things overly complicated. I was kept very much in the dark throughout the story and didn't have much of an idea of what was going on before Carson did. I like a good mystery where we are kept in as much in the dark as the main character. Although Carson was the main character, I felt that the other characters played just as much a part which is always good too. 

I wouldn't say there was any particular downfalls with the book. There are pictures throughout showing scenes of where the characters are or particular objects. I did think that some of them weren't necessary such as cigarettes. The scene pictures would have been nice at the beginning of each chapter to set the scene of each particular one but that's just being picky!

Overall, I think Dernall has done a good job here. I haven't read any of the other books in the Carson series but if they are as good as this one, then they would definitely be worth a read. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes reading murder mysteries in general, but also anyone whose looking for something a little different in the mystery aisle. Younger audiences need not be put off - if I liked it, so will you!

Happy reading :)