First Chapter Review: Irregardless of Murder by E. E. Kennedy

I purchased a copy of Irregardless of Murder by E.E. Kennedy after receiving a recent newsletter from Sheaf House Publishers. This is a cozy mystery--one of my favorite genres.

BLURB:  Amelia Prentice, fortyish high school English teacher, trips over a corpse in the safest of places, the public library. Now, nothing of her cozy small town life in the Adirondacks will be the same.

Amelia (whose pet peeve is the non-word ‘irregardless’) returns to school, but soon she must deal with the facts: this death was no accident and she’s a murder suspect. The victim’s mother disappears; friend Lily is thrown overboard from the Lake Champlain ferryboat, a mysterious millionaire wants to buy Amelia’s house, the school nurse is viciously attacked and Amelia’s old beau Gil seems interested again.

And, of course, there’s the Lake Champlain monster.

It will take all Amelia’s wisdom, humor and faith to figure out what’s going on.

If she survives…

COVER: Love it. Appropriate for the genre and has a tie-in to Chapter One. The Adirondack chair hails to the author's location in northern New York and the setting of the story.

FIRST CHAPTER: Miss Prentice is found unconscious in the public library after spending her typical Thursday night correcting English papers. Muddled, she finds herself surrounded by the head librarian, a paramedic and Police Detective Dennis O'Brien, the last two former students.

She quickly learns from her neighbor, who also happens to be at the library, that Marguerite LeBow, who worked at the library, has been found dead in the copy room.

KEEP READING: Definitely. I was attracted by the interesting setting of this novel--a public library. What makes me want to continue, however, is the engaging cast of characters we meet in the Prologue and the first chapter. In the Prologue, the reader gets a glimpse of Ms. LeBow, but it's really the first chapter that sets this whole thing into play. Though there are several characters introduced, Kennedy does a fabulous job of keeping the reader on track. Some characters appear only briefly with a line or two. Others, like Miss Prentice, the paramedic, and the detective interact more, focusing the reader's attention on their conversation. Some characters, we merely know are there by actions that are mentioned, like the flashing of a camera.

Mysteries lend themselves to wanting to turn the pages, but Kennedy has put together a strong first chapter that encourages the reader to continue. Since Sheaf House is a Christian publisher, I'm guessing faith will also be part of this story. The second book in this series is due out in September.


Paperback: 338 pages
Publisher: Sheaf House (August 1, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1936438186
ISBN-13: 978-1936438181
ASIN: B008CSCVJ0

I purchased an electronic copy of this book from Amazon for my Kindle. This review contains my honest opinions, for which I have not been compensated in any way.