Deadly Reunion by June Shaw

Genre:
Cozy Mystery

Publisher:
Five Star Publishing

Format:
Hardcover

Release Date:
July 2011

Widow Cealie Gunther is invited to go on a high school cruise reunion with friends she hasn’t seen in years. The cruise is heading towards Alaska where her son lives. So she couldn’t turn down an opportunity to not only reunite with old friends, but have a visit with her son and his family. It also gives her a chance to get some much needed space from her boyfriend, Gil Thurman, before making a decision about their future.

The reunion isn’t all Cealie thought it would be as one of her friends has a serious problem that she isn’t willing to share and one of her former classmates used to be her uncle but now is her aunt. Things take a murderous turn when one of her classmates is seen flirting with a fellow passenger, who ends up dead. Cealie is determined to find out what really happened and prove her friend’s innocence.

Cealie quickly learns that her friends aren’t the same people she knew in high school and have many of secrets of their own. To make matters even more confusing, she runs into Gil onboard. She’s convinced he’s stalking her but learns that he’s really there for business that has nothing to do with her.

When Cealie receives mysterious notes and another dead body turns up, she puts on her investigative hat and tries to discover exactly what’s going on. Even her reunion with her son doesn’t turn out as she thought it would. Suddenly her relaxing, exciting trip is turning into one big disaster.

I loved the heroine of this story. She’s a feisty, older heroine who isn’t content to sit on the sidelines. I fell in love with her right from the start. The rest of the characters were quirky and made me want to know what was going on with them. I wish we had more of a chance to see Cealie with her son, though. They have a falling out which I’m sure will be explored in future books. I guess I wasn’t quite ready for the book to end. I needed and wanted to read more!

This is the third book in the Cealie Gunther series and the first one I read. It didn’t ruin the story at all for me to start with the third book. I’m always so anal about starting series from the start but this one was easy to get into and it really didn’t ruin the book at all. I do want to go back and read the first two, though. It’s a fast-paced book that had everything I love in a cozy mystery. For a change, I didn’t figure out whodunit – that’s always a fun thing!

I'm giving this one 5 kitties and my Socrates' Great Book Alert Award. Why? Because this book made me truly care about the characters and want to know what made them tick. When a book leaves you wanting more, that's definitely a good thing.

FTC Disclosure: The author provided me with a copy of this book to review. This did not influence my thoughts and opinions in any way. All opinions expressed are my own.