Twice Dead

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and suspenseful!
Review: Elizabeth Dearl's second book, TWICE DEAD, is just as intriguing and suspenseful, quirky and amusing, as her first book in this series, DIAMONDBACK. In this story, sassy blonde amateur sleuth Taylor Madison and her adorable ferret return for more thrills and chills as they solve a thirty-five year old mystery after finding a skeleton in the chimney. Who killed Ralph Posey? I'll never tell. This one will keep you guessing to the surprising ending. Very highly recommended!!!

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and suspenseful!
Review: Elizabeth Dearl's second book, TWICE DEAD, is just as intriguing and suspenseful, quirky and amusing, as her first book in this series, DIAMONDBACK. In this story, sassy blonde amateur sleuth Taylor Madison and her adorable ferret return for more thrills and chills as they solve a thirty-five year old mystery after finding a skeleton in the chimney. Who killed Ralph Posey? I'll never tell. This one will keep you guessing to the surprising ending. Very highly recommended!!!

Rating:
Summary: A vacation between book covers
Review: I found Twice Dead to be a vacation between book covers. The reader goes to a unique place, a town in northwest Texas, and is swept along by events in the lives of unique characters. You can get so far down into the story you forget your own surroundings. Not a bad pay-back for few bucks and a few hours. I'm watching for Ms. Dearl's next book.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for any mystery lover!
Review: Mystery writer Taylor Madison returns for another outstanding mystery accompanied by her adorable pet ferret Hazel and a compelling cast of ecentric characters. Taylor enjoys living in small town Perdue, Texas. She is comfortably settled into a dating routine with the town's sexy sheriff, Cal Arnette, several months after solving the murder of Cal's predecessor. Hearing rumors a particularly promising garage sale, she convinces Cal to accompany her out to elderly Bo Posey's place.

Poking through old furniture, junk, and memories, Taylor finds a shocking surprise. Everyone assumed Bo's husband left town thirty-five years ago. Now Taylor finds his skeleton in the chimney of Bo's guesthouse, leaving the elderly to be the primary suspect in a murder investigation. Taylor's determined to prove Bo's innocence, and begins her own investigation. Her well-meaning interference triggers danger to Cal's career as sheriff as opportunists use the leaks of information for their own political purposes. Worse, it soon becomes apparent that someone's willing to kill to keep the secrets of the past buried.

Author Elizabeth Dearl creates a fast-paced mystery in TWICE DEAD. The multidimensional characterizations offer the plot interesting complexity, as each person slowly reveals secrets of the past. Indeed, TWICE DEAD brings the past and present into a collision course that supplies a surprising ending guaranteed to satisfy fans of mystery and suspense. Readers who enjoyed the first of this series, DIAMONDBACK, will delight in the increasing maturity of this author's style. New fans will find TWICE DEAD an excellent stand-alone. Very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Second Book in the Taylor Madison Series
Review: Taylor Madison has settled down into her father's old house in Perdue, Texas and is busy trying to write a new mystery novel, keep anyone from noticing that Cal Arnette, the man running for Sheriff in a month's time and her boyfriend, is spending most nights over at her house, and stay on top of the gossip coming from her neighbor Dorothy. So the last thing she needs is to find a skeleton in her friend Bonita "Bo" Posey's closet. Well, chimney in this case.

When Taylor persuaded Cal to drive her out to Bo's house on the chance of finding some good garage sale bargains they found a male skeleton wedged up the chimney with a shovel. Turns out the skeleton belongs to Ralph, Bo's preacher husband who supposedly ran off with all the church funds years ago. Since it was Bo's husband and she made no bones about her hatred for the man, Bo was the natural suspect for the murder. Taylor knows that her friend Bo would never kill her husband, no matter how much she hated him, and is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery.

But as Taylor gets involved in the past, she uncovers more mysteries instead of solutions. Why does Faith, Bo's daughter hate her? What happened to Harvey Neff, Ralph's sidekick? Why does Lewis Tucker, arguably the richest man in town live like a pauper? And what caused Lewis and Faith to break up on the night of his accident? How is the slimy new deputy Oliver Burke involved in the whole mess? And, most importantly, what is going on between Cal and the attractive Srgt. Molly Sullivan of the Lubbock Sheriff's Department? As Taylor hunts to uncover the answers to the mystery, she is forced to make some difficult decisions, but decides that she cannot let the past stay buried...

This is the second book in the Taylor Madison series and it is just as good as the first one, Diamondback. I love that the author keeps the same characters coming back for more so that readers of the series can see what is happening in their lives, but first time readers will find Dearl's brief backgrounds more that adequate to catch them up. The little town of Perdue, TX is a great setting for this series and the characters are absolutely wonderful. Be on the lookout for more by this author - she is just fabulous!