It’s Murder, My Son-Lauren Carr

It’s Murder, My Son
Lauren Carr
CreateSpace, Jun 2010, $14.99
ISBN: 9781452819433
writerlaurencarr@comcast.net

In DC Homicide Detective Mac Faraday cannot believe the judge’s ruling in his divorce from his wife of twenty years; she left him for another man but got their home and everything else of value. As he left the courthouse stunned, elderly lawyer Ed Willingham accosted him, but sick of his ex wife’s attorneys he flees until he stopped feeling sorry for the man struggling to follow him. Ed informs him that he is the child and heir of the late Queen of Mystery Robin Spencer. She gave him up for adoption over four decades ago as an unmarried teen who knew kids can’t raise kids.

Mac moves into the closed gated community in Spencer, Maryland. As he takes first step towards his new home, Gnarly the German shepherd attacks him; Archie as Robin’s assistant who comes with the manor, saves him from sever injuries. Archie tells the retired Georgetown cop that three months earlier, someone killed multi-millionaire Katrina Singleton who would have been his next door neighbor. The police believe the "Pay Back" stalker murdered her, but have not found any evidence as to who this individual is and whether he actually killed her. Reading his mom’s novels, plays and journals and assisted by Archie and a brother he never knew existed, Mac investigates what is turning into a cold case murder.

It’s Murder, My Son is an enjoyable amusing murder mystery starring a likable cast and a few avaricious nasties. The story line is lighthearted fun as Gnarly brings jocularity to the mix while every time Mac and Archie try to kiss they are interrupted. The whodunit is top rate, but the entertaining plot belongs to Mac and friends and family as he leads the inquiry into the death of the next door neighbor.

Harriet Klausner