The Parcel Express Murders

Rating:
Summary: A Cleverly Woven Murder Mystery
Review: Bernadette Y. Connor's The Parcel Express Murders is cleverly woven into a context where romance, mystery, and intrigue is allowed to play under the backdrop of murder. The author is showing in this sophomoric effort her penchant for writing genre-crossing thrillers where the female is a heroine and the masculine are supporting catalysts to tell a good story without compromising nothing in between.

This is a story about Samoa Tate a psychiatrist who helps patients come to grips with their maladies, but within her own framework there's the need to cope with an absentee father that has a bearing on her personal life. Enter the Dynamic Duo, Detectives Hall Hawkins and Edward Clark assigned the task of solving a double murder case, and a subsequent string of unsolved murders. An interesting sidelight is the fact that Samoa and Detective Clark as love interests are both involved unknowingly in finding the killers, which bodes well in the author introducing subplots that fit well into the result of marrying romance with the mystique of 'who done it', how, and why.

This book could as well been depicted as a romance novel with its steamy love scenes and the charm and wit that both characters, Somoa and Eddie exhibit. So much so, that the secondary characters are truly an adjunct to how the main entities play into interludes that make you wonder whether the mystery should center around the murders, or perhaps what's the mystery behind why Samoa is reluctant to engage Eddie in a more willing fashion as a love interest.

As I read this novel, I couldn't help but to compare it with other deep-seated mysteries I've read in allowing me to truly define them as such. To the author's credit though, she told a good story..., but knowing how I love to unravel and be part of suspenseful intrigue, I was hoping for more twists and turns, and unexpected drama to unfold with the details that were presented here. If the plot would've included the aforementioned it conceivably would have garnered a higher rating from me.

Nevertheless, this indeed is a good read and doesn't suffer at the expense of the prior statement by me. It indeed should pique your interest in this author, and demand more of same. I enjoyed this yarn albeit with wishful yearnings, and would hope that you'd hink of this author as being of mind to write in a challenged mode to bring depth to this genre. There's certainly the potential to do so based on what I've read here, and hope that you read it for yourself!

Rating:
Summary: CRAZY!!!
Review: D*m*! This book was...d*m*! You have to get this one! This woman(Bernadette Y. Connor) had my head so twisted that I just couldn't figure this one out! This story takes many twists and turns and will have you yearning for more at the end of each page. This was one of those books that was "stuck to my fingers"!!!

Rating:
Summary: SO MUCH MORE THAN A MYSTERY
Review: The Parcel Express Murders is an action packed story filled with twists, turns
and spirited characters. Set in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a prominent
business man and his mistress are murdered after a swank party and Detectives
Hawkins and Clark are charged with solving the crime. As they investigate the
seemingly unsolvable felony, the body count mounts. And the widow of the
deceased sets her sights on Detective Clark as he tries to start
a romance with the aloof Dr. Somoa Tate. Somoa is a psychiatrist and the
best friend of Detective Hall Hawkins' wife, Christine. Running parallel to
the murder investigation is the strongest part of the novel -- the
interpersonal relationships of the four main characters. Each character is
presented richly, interspersed with the storyline and their relationships to
each other.

As the story progresses, readers will try to guess who the murderer is and will
undoubtedly be surprised by the outcome. Bernadette Connor weaves an intense
story that comes together perfectly in the end. The mystery is an added
attraction in this book, as readers will enjoy the camaraderie of the four
main characters as well as the life issues that each one confronts during the
course of the tale.

Reviewed by Diane Marbury (HonestD)
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers