Pains and Penalties: A Woman Sleuth Mystery
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4.0 • 468 Ratings
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Publisher Description
PAINS AND PENALTIES is the first book in this quirky, fast-paced cozy mystery series from author S.E. Biglow where you'll find a dash of nerdy fun mixed with your new favorite amateur sleuth.
★★★★★ "plenty of surprises and twists to keep you entertained" jlh2496 (BookBub review)
★★★★★ "Engaging and fun…the perfect beach read" – (online review)
Small-town life brings big-city problems.
Kalina Greystone's return home to Ellesworth, MA to take over the family's comic book shop brings back old friends and even older secrets. The death of her Great Aunt Agatha in plain sight at the annual Solstice Fair pushes her to snoop where she doesn't belong--much to the chagrin of former high school sweetheart, Detective Christian Harper. As Kalina digs into her great aunt's past, she uncovers a dark truth that Agatha and her closest friends were hoping to take to the grave. A truth the killer wants revealed.
Will Kalina and Chris catch the killer before an innocent woman loses her freedom and the killer's thirst for vengeance is sated?
Get PAINS AND PENALTIES to start unraveling the mystery today!
Customer Reviews
Pains and penaltys
Good mystery
Short, Sweet, and Simple
This is a short book, with a simple mystery, and a sweet (sometimes overly sweet) romance. The pacing was good for its brevity. The simplicity of the mystery actually didn’t take away from the story. I think the mystery and the murderer’s motivation added some depth to the story. It would’ve been nice if Kalin had a bit more…weigh in on that. It would’ve been really interesting to see her and Chris argue about a certain hero being a vigilante and why that’s good or bad (like a Punisher vs Daredevil thing). Then go through this case, mentioning that fight. That would have been cool.
And honestly, that’s one of my main gripes with the story. For a Geek and Things store, few geek stuff was mentioned. Things like merch and gaming were mentioned in passing but not making much significant impact on the case. In fact, it seemed like Aj ran the shop more than her (granted this took place over two-three days).
Another issue, which is probably more of a personal preference, was that the romance seemed to just be…there. Like the sprinkles on one of those sugar cookies. It doesn’t add much other than a bit of color and maybe texture (tone) to the main thing.
Still, it covers the 3 S’s of a solid read. It’s worth checking out.
Pains and Penalties
This is about Kalina who moves back home to take over the family comic book store and gets involved with a cozy mystery when her great aunt dies mysteriously at the fair. Kalina must figure out what’s going on before more little old ladies are killed while not treading on the toes of her old boyfriend.