A Timely Vision by Joyce and Jim Lavene
Edition: Kindle
Pages: 304
Publisher/Date: Berkley / May 4, 2010
Price: $7.99 on Amazon
Reading Challenges: Where Are You Reading? (North Carolina)
The Unlikely Sleuth: Dae O’Donnell, owner of secondhand store Missing Pieces and mayor of the small, tourist town of Duck, North Carolina (I checked, it’s real!) Dae also possesses a psychic-like gift where she can locate missing objects.
Synopsis: In the small ocean side town of Duck, North Carolina, everyone knows everyone and nothing much ever happens. All of that changes when Miss Elizabeth, a 90-year-old lifelong citizen of Duck is found murdered. The likely suspect: her older sister, Miss Mildred. While the police seem satisfied to pin it on Mildred (who has feuded with her sister their entire lives), Dae knows Mildred is innocent. Now, all Dae needs to do is to find the real killer before it’s too late.
Plot Pace Rating: 4/5 – I was entertained. Success!
Mystery Rating: 3/5 – While I enjoyed the mystery plot (for the most part), it was very much based on lack of police procedure and knowledge. I know, I know –this isn’t CSI, it’s a fun cozy mystery. But the evidence was pretty circumstantial, but it was treated like there was no other possible explanation. The police chief, despite being a Duck local, acted like he would rather just pin the murder on someone than deal with it rather than having to actually investigate. And everyone just does along with this.
The one question that no one asked was: How does a 90-something-year-old woman kill her sister and attempt to burry her on the beach?
The other BIG thing was that there was another murder mystery plot introduced later on, but it’s kind of shrugged off. I didn’t realize it until I was done and thought back, “Oh, hey, what about…?” I’m guessing it will be answered in future books.
Character Rating: 3/5 – I liked Dae and I especially enjoyed the fact that she held a position in her local government. She truly cared about the people of Duck, so it made sense that she would want to not only clear the name of one of its oldest citizens, but protect them all from letting the real killer go free.
With that said, she didn’t have much of a backbone. In investigation matters, Dae seemed to go along with whatever the “old boys” said. They very much treated her like she was a child, and that’s not unthinkable since they are older and they really did know her when she was a child.
The rest of the characters were enjoyable enough (aside from Dae’s “friend” Shayla, who was selfish, self-absorbed and I can’t possibly understand why Dae even put up with her). The feisty Miss Mildred had me laughing out loud.
Romance Rating: 3/5 – Dae isn’t a romance-focused kind of woman, so it really doesn’t play a huge part in this book. She seems generally apathetic to dating and love. Kevin Brickman is a former FBI agent from Washington D.C. who, looking for a change of pace, moved to Duck to reopen the old Blue Whale Inn. Being the new guy in town, this makes him the most eligible bachelor. It’s obvious the two have chemistry and Kevin all but spells it out to Dae that he is interested in her and not interested in her friend Shayla, but Dae continues to believe not only that he’s not interested in her but that he’s in a relationship with Shayla. I’m not sure what dating means in North Carolina, but I think one would actually have to go out a few times to be dating, but whatever. Anyway, it was a little frustrating to see Dae constantly put herself down and assume Kevin didn’t like her like that.
The Best: The setting. You can almost always tell if an author just picked a location because they liked the way it sounded or if the author really knows the place they’re writing about. A Timely Vision is definitely the latter. I fell in love with Duck and its residents. I could picture the little houses and tourists meandering from the beach to browse the small shops (like the one owned by Dae). I even looked up the real Duck to see if it was just how I imagined it. It was.
The Worst: Dae needed to stop being such a pushover.
Series Rating: This is the first book in the series. While I liked it, I wasn’t in love with it, and am giving it a second chance with the second book.
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