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AMATEUR SLEUTH/COZY/
HUMOR/SENIOR SLEUTH
A WRINKLE IN CRIME
Oh, my gosh. What is May Bell up to now? To gain experience in crime fighting, May partners with a local policeman, one Officer Mike Murphy. During a civilian ride-along, and in her attempts to show her expertise, May steals and destroys a police cruiser, blasts out the tires of two fleeing convenience store thieves with Murphy's shot gun and makes a citizen's arrest. When the Harvest Police Department converges on the scene, Officer Murphy explains May has made a slight error in judgment. She's just arrested two innocent men.

May Bell proves that a life of high drama doesn't end with menopause and friends can be found in the most unlikely places. Next time though, just to be safe, she'll ask Officer Murphy for permission before stealing another police cruiser.
Read A Review:

After May Bell's success in two previous murder investigations, she signs up for a civilian ride-along program to gain more experience. In her zeal to prove her abilities, she steals and destroys the police cruiser and makes a citizen's arrest of two men fleeing after she thought she saw them holding up the convenience store. In the process she also blew out the tires of their vehicle with a shot gun. Unfortunately Office Murphy explains she arrested two innocent men.

Plus the sister of her friends, the Peach sisters, has died. She's certain there's more to it than the police believe. So she sets out to discover the truth.

In the process of investigating, she ends up in jail, has to talk to many unsavory characters, and has people after her. Can she find the killer without putting herself in any more danger?

I really enjoy May Bell's antics. She's a senior citizen with a lot of spunk and determination. She has her share of blunders, but she keeps at it.

In this book I missed the residents of the senior facility she previously lived in, but May Bell found plenty of new ways to entertain the reader without them.

I recommend this book.

Dawn Dowdle


The self-proclaimed wannabe amateur sleuth May Bell is back again, no longer living in a retirement facility but with her slipper-stealing husband.  Upon reading the obituaries in the Spokane newspaper one morning, May discovers her friend, Mavis, has recently passed away from “natural” causes. Running in a race just two weeks prior, May’s nose for trouble smells something suspiciously fowl.  Lucky for her, she’s been picked to do a “ride-a-long” with a police officer, all she has to do is get the area changed to the suburb of Harvest where Mavis’s death occurred, and her investigation can begin.

Visiting Inez and Bertha (Mavis’s sisters), May’s baffled over their joyful mood of the death rather than being grief stricken.  But through the course of conversation, she finds that Mavis had planned to shut down their business, Poochie Hooch Dog Grooming.  This does not stop May from searching for the truth even though no one, including the police, will listen to her.

This 67-year-old feisty woman manages to cause chaos with arresting innocent people, chasing criminals in a police vehicle, shooting out tires, and finally putting her in harms' way when the murderer is determined to shut May up forever.

This is my first May Bell mystery, but I found myself smiling over the craziness of this “senior” citizen who is not letting age hold her down, that I had to read the first one.  This is a book I recommend for nothing less than the smiles it will bring. 

Skye Lindborg