No Reason for Insanity: A Haszard Narrative (The Haszard Narratives #6)

When Haszard’s friend is murdered, the family asks him to look into the matter. Against the advice of his other friends, he starts asking questions and unearthing secrets that people would’ve preferred stay buried. As Haszard’s own life and those of his friends become endangered, he realizes the culprit might be someone he knows… 

In a rather intriguing mix of mystery and black humor, author Kevin E. Hatt describes some genuine, caring characters that seem so real they might as well jump right off the pages. The author does an admirable job establishing the characters and their day to day activities. The trail leading to the killer isn’t very straightforward, and Haszard has to jump through quite a few hurdles, along with the reader, to discover who the culprit is. 

On the downside, the pacing isn’t always stellar. It is too slow in places where the author focuses too much on ordinary life, and sometimes too fast when clues and puns are revealed. The writing was decent, but not outstanding. The author used a lot of telling instead of showing, and the book had some grammatical errors. That notwithstanding, it’s a pleasant and entertaining mystery, and the comedy works well. The characters are realistic, and are the core strength of the book.  

Majanka Verstraete