Deeanne Gist/J. Mark Bertrand

Dear Readers,


A couple of weeks ago I read J. Mark Bertrand's first novel, Back on Murder. I enjoyed the book and will do a better review when that one comes out. In the mean time, he released Beguiled, co-written with Deanne Gist. Now most of you will be familiar with her from her Historical novels. Bride in the Bargain is her latest. This book is a bit out of their normal writing, if you can call one book normal for Mark. This is a contemporary mystery. It is more along the lines of a Dee Henderson with more of a sense of humor.

Rylee is a dog-walker who is just trying to keep her head above water. She is barely making it. Her Grandmother lives in a retirement home and with those payments and rent, there isn't much to spare. But she loves her job and feels like her clients are part of her family. So when her clients are getting robbed by the Robin Hood burglar, she hopes it doesn't reflect badly on her.

Logan Woods is a reporter for the local newspaper. He is the one that named the thief the Robin Hood burglar when he steals high price items and then gives them to charities to auction off. He is actually just following the story in the hopes of selling the story in book form and launching his writing career. When he meets up with Rylee, he finds her attractive but also suspects she maybe the guilty party. How else to explain that all her clients are the ones being robbed?

This is a light mystery. I had a pretty good guess as to who-done-it right off the bat. But it was a fun read. I will be honest I did have a bit of a problem with how the two authors worked together. I just felt like I could tell right away exactly where each one was writing. Not a bad thing, but each has such a different writing style and they really don't write books that are alike, which makes it harder for them to write together and make it flow.

This book is well worth the read, it just isn't going to keep you awake at night.

Happy Reading,
Chris