Bad Tidings by F.M. Meredith -- Book Review

I read through Final Respects so quickly and was so eager to continue with the Rocky Bluff P.D. series that I moved right onto Bad Tidings, which I finished in under a day.

In the second book of this series, Lieutenant Tom Gilbreath is often the one who gets to deliver bad news. Little does he know that he's about to receive some bad news of his own.

Officer Joe Guzzo has a perfect wife, but suffers from a wandering eye. Is it any wonder he and many of the other officers in the department notice Officer Georgia Lindquist is a knock-out?

Two murders rock the once small beach community of Rocky Bluff and keep Lt. Gilbreath busy while he faces a crisis of his own.

As I already mentioned, I moved swiftly from Book 1 into Book 2 of the Rocky Bluff P.D. series. Not only did I not want to lose my momentum on learning the back story of characters I have become attached to through the reading of the other books in this series, I was so impressed with the first book that I didn't have the desire to read anything else but Bad Tidings this week, which also explains why I'm reading Fringe Benefits right now.

Like Final Respects before it, there are several smaller crimes that take place, but the two murders are the focus of the story. As has been true in every Rocky Bluff P.D. book I've read, the reader not only gets to watch the detectives unravel clues and capture criminals; he also gets a chance to see how each officer's job affects his family.

Now divorced, Doug Milligan has thrown himself into his job and is considering taking Officer Lindquist out on a date. Problem is, several others guys, single and married, are interested in the sexiest member of the department. Is jealousy going to affect their working together?

In addition to familiar characters, readers get a chance to meet some new faces. But again, as someone who read the later installments of this series first, I truly enjoyed moving back in time to see where characters like Frank Marshall were in Bad Tidings as opposed to where they are in An Axe to Grind.

With Joe Guzzo, Meredith created a cop that you really don't like too much, which was new for the series when the book first came out. In Final Respects, the cops were all good guys. They dealt with stuff, but they didn't have serious flaws that made you want to beat them with a stick. Guzzo, on the other hand, while a good cop, he's a jerk as a husband. He's stepping out on his beautiful wife, and his son doesn't seem to be too high on his priority list either. What ultimately happens with him didn't come as a surprise, but I have to admit I spent some of my reading time wondering how Meredith was going to deal with Guzzo.

Bad Tidings by F.M. Meredith is an excellent police procedural. Meredith's level of research is obvious, and she shares her knowledge without losing the reader in a bunch of jargon and unncessary details.

You can purchase this book from the author's website. If you are interested in picking up a copy of Bad Tidings, you better do it soon. Once the author's copies are gone, it will no longer be available. And let me tell you, if you get into this series like I have, you won't want to miss this one.


Title: Bad Tidings
Author: F.M. Meredith
Publisher: The Fiction Works
ISBN: 1-58124-788-5
SRP: $12.99