Dead Girl In a Green Dress

Byrony Long is having great misgivings about the recent death of her half-sister.  Jessica was working a summer job at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island when she was mugged and killed. Suspicious as to the cause of Jessica’s death, Byrony hires a private investigator to go with her to the island and take a look into the case.  The PI, Tate Madison, has reservations about working with Byrony on the case; as he prefers to work alone, and Jessica is quite the distraction to him.

Tate takes the case, however, and the couple head to the island to find out what really happened to Jessica.  Their investigation leads them to suspect that Jessica was murdered.  The island business owners don’t want the murder dredged back up, as the talk it generates is bad for tourism.  Employees at the Grand Hotel are reluctant to talk about Jessica, and the whole incident is shrouded in mystery.   The hotel manager and his patronizing wife are anxious have the case swept under the rug and forgotten.   It has also become obvious that the case was poorly investigated by the local police.

"Dead Girl In a Green Dress’ is a well-written, pleasant story.  The investigation is nicely laid out, and the blossoming romance between Byrony and Tate is quite enjoyable to read.  Unfortunately, many of the events in the book are telegraphed to the reader ahead of time, and are a bit contrived and obvious.  The murderer is found and the case wrapped up far too easily. Still, the story was an easy read, a nice way to spend a few hours lost in an amiable book.

Faith Turner