Saturday, September 3, 2022

Review: Gambling With Murder by Lida Sideris

 


About the Book


Genre
Cozy Mystery

Format
E-ARC

Publisher
Level Best Books

Release Date
March 29, 2022

Synopsis from Goodreads:

A late-night call is all it takes for rookie lawyer Corrie Locke to kiss her day job at the movie studio goodbye, and do what she does best: flex her sweet P.I. skills and go undercover to find a senior who’s missing from a posh retirement community. One small stumbling block: skirting past security to gain inside access to the exclusive Villa Sunset. Time to call in the heavy artillery. Besides former security guard turned legal assistant—now wannabe P.I.—Veera, Corrie relies on a secret weapon: her mother, a surprisingly eager addition to Corrie’s team. Armed with enough pepper spray to take down a band of Navy Seals, Mom impersonates a senior to infiltrate the Villa, Corrie, and Veera in tow. Turns out the job’s not as easy as they’d thought. These seniors have tricks tucked up their sleeves and aren’t afraid of using them.

The action gets dicey when the missing senior case turns into attempted murder by a criminal mind who’s always one step ahead. Corrie’s hot on the trail, but finds more than she bargained for…when her mother becomes a target.

My Review

Corrie Locke is ready to trade in her job as an attorney to become a P.I.  Her friend, Veera, is right by her side.  She wants to be a P.I. too.  When Corrie receives a call from Villa Sunset, a retirement community, she jumps at the chance to help them locate a missing resident.  The first thing she has to do is figure out a way to get into the community without raising any suspicions.  Her mother is more than willing to help with that.  Posing as a resident in the community, Corrie’s mother gets in with Corrie and Veera posing as her grandchildren.

The case of the missing resident isn’t quite as easy as Corrie thought it would be.  She gets entangled with a group of seniors who aren’t exactly sitting quietly by knitting or watching TV.  Her mother really gets into the swing of things but will they come out alive or not?

The characters in this book had me laughing out loud.  I loved the rapport between Corrie, her mother and Veera.  They work well together and support each other.  The secondary characters are well written, quirky and have quite a bit of witty dialogue.

The storyline moves at a steady pace.  I kept trying to figure out the culprits as I read along, but I changed my mind several times during this book.  

This is the fifth book in the Southern California Mysteries series and my first introduction to the series and this author.  What a fun ride this book took me on!  Although I haven’t read the first four books in the series, I didn’t feel as if I missed anything.  The author gives some background character information, and the mystery is contained in this book.  However, my interest is piqued to find out more about these fun-loving characters. So, the plan is for me to get caught up.

Lida Sideris knows how to write humor and she did a good job with this one.  She kept me laughing and thinking at the same thing.  I do enjoy a book that makes me laugh.  I’ll definitely be visiting Corrie and her friends again.



For reading challenges:

Craving for the Cozies Reading Challenge 2022
Cruisin’ thru the Cozies Reading Challenge 2022


FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed a free Advance Reader Copy of this book from the author. I was not required to write a positive review.  All opinions expressed are my own.

5 comments:

  1. Thank you, Yvonne, for the wonderful review of my latest book! I appreciate it!

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  2. I've never read a book out of series order, but one day I may have to. I like to read books in the season when they take place. That doesn't always work when trying to start with book 1, which is where I'm at with most series at this point. Lol. :)

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  3. Glad you enjoyed it. I bought the first a few months ago. Now, I need to find time to read it.

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  4. This looks fun and I love that it involves a group of older residents. I need to look for the first book in the series.

    ReplyDelete

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