Murder of a Pink Elephant

Rating:
Summary: Skye has to clear her brother
Review: Skye Denison is a school psychologist in Scumble River. Her brother's band has just changed its name from Plastic Santa to Pink Elephant. It's changed its sound from soft rock and roll to a sound so loud it made her ears almost bleed. They practice in Vince's hair salon.

The band plays at the Valentine's Day dance at the local high school. When a fire breaks out, Skye works hard to make sure everyone is out safely. Then Logan Wolfe, a band member, is found dead after the fire. There had been tension in the band recently. Heather , a groupie, wants to sign with the band. She wants it so bad, she slept with each band member hoping it would help. It didn't. But once Logan, their lead signer, is dead, Heather is added to the band. Could she have killed Logan to get in?

Police Chief Wally Boyd is running for town mayor. His ex-wife, Darleen, has returned and is hoping to become "Mrs. Mayor." Unfortunately she is very jealous of Skye and causes much trouble. There isn't anything for her to be jealous about, but she still is.

Vince becomes Wally's number one suspect in Logan's death. Skye knows she must protect her brother and help find the real killer.

Simon, her boyfriend and the coroner and funeral home owner, has recently purchased the bowling alley. His mother arrived in town not long ago and after time and some discussions, he bought it so she could run it. The renovations are done and they have their open house.

Many strange occurrences happen in town and in neighboring towns with many youth. It comes to Skye's attention that an influx of drugs has hit the area. She is trying to find the methamphetamine lab and shut it down.

This is another in a string of great books in this series. I love Skye and all the other characters. They all blend together to make a wonderful small-town atmosphere. Her family is always in the middle of things. Since her mother is a dispatcher, she often knows what's happening before Skye. This makes it hard for Skye to do her sleuthing.

I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: upbeat amateur sleuth mystery
Review: When Sky Dennison graduated school, she left Scumble River before the ink on her diploma was dry. After she lost her job, her boyfriend dumped her and she didn't have enough money to pay the rent, she returned home. Her uncle got her the position of school psychologist and after almost three years Sky realizes she likes living and working in her hometown, being close to friends, family and her lover Simon.

The high school sponsors a dance for the students and hire Pink Elephant, a band that includes Sky's brother Vince, to play at the event. She notices that two members are at each other's throat but her brother won't tell her why. At the night of the dance, a fire alarm evacuates the building; when Skye looks to see if anyone is in the building, she trips over the dead body of a band member. Vince is a prime suspect so Sky once again tries to track down a murderer so that she can exonerate his brother.

Although Scumble River is a small community, it has many of the problems of a big city including students taking hard drugs. While trying to find a killer, Sky always wants to find the methamphetamine lab so the sheriff can close it down and arrest the dealer. The heroine is tough when it comes to her students and her family, going the extra mile to get them out of trouble yet with Simon all she can think of is "Give me give me good lovin". MURDER OF A PINK ELEPHANT is an upbeat amateur sleuth mystery that takes place in a quirky town with zany characters.

Harriet Klausner