Sandra's Book Club: Blog Tour: SWING INTO MURDER by Vanessa M. Knight

Swing into Murder

by Vanessa M. Knight

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GENRE: Mystery w/Romantic elements

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BLURB:

Harper Lange is a grade school teacher with a secret. Well, since her husband passed away, she hasn’t been to the DeVout swinger’s club—so her secret life has dried up to Harry Potter binges and Merlot. Clubs are no fun without her husband by her side.

When Las Vegas’ finest knock on her door reopening her husband’s case, she finds herself back at DeVout trying to figure out who would want to kill her husband. Kill her husband. She never thought she’d be thinking those words, let alone interrogating her friends.

With everything going on, she should be hiding in the corner with a full bottle of wine and a box of donuts, like a normal person. Instead, she’s roaming around the streets of Las Vegas getting hot and bothered with Detective Alex Cabrero—heavy on the bothered. The man can’t seem to understand why she’d want to find answers—or that she’ll go wherever the information leads—even if it means she has to drag the detective along.

Harper needs to find the truth before she becomes the next victim.

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Excerpt One:

Harper Lange pulled out the chair behind a wooden desk. The first cop stood behind the chair across from Harper while the scowly one leaned against a bookcase across the room.

“I’m Detective Cabrero.” The scowl didn’t leave his face. “And this is Detective Lucas, Ms. Specter.”

“Lange. I’m back to my maiden name. Please sit.” Harper sat down and waved to the pleather chairs in front of the desk. It hurt to lose her husband’s name—although it had been her choice. It hurt to lose anything associated with him. For a while, honestly everything hurt. “Do you know something about my husband’s accident?”

Detective Lucas sat in the left-hand chair. He was a nice-looking guy in a father-with-a-minivan kind of way. He had a receding hairline and a belt trying to escape the paunch in his middle.

“We don’t have anything new, Ms. Lange.” Detective Cabrero angled away from the bookcase and sat in the remaining chair across from the desk. He ran a finger along the scar along his cheek. “We’ve reopened the case because we have another incident in front of DeVout.” DeVout. The home that housed the secret-club where she’d last seen her husband, Brad. The club took everything away from her. “An incident?”

“Do you know Madeline Williams?”

Harper hadn’t talked to Madeline in weeks, which was sad since they’d been best friends. “I do.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

“About a year.” When Harper’s husband ran a hand down her naked back. She’d talked to Madeline but they just hadn’t been able to synch schedules. “Is she okay?”

She’d been a great friend and strong shoulder when Harper needed to cry. And she was one hell of a kisser too.

Detective Cabrero leaned forward, his eyes reading her every move. “Madeline was killed last night.”

Killed? The word slammed into her chest and sucked the air from her lungs.

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Review: Harper lost her husband and now she lost her best friend. Not another death. Ever since then, the only thing Harper wanted to know was what happened the night her husband was killed. Perhaps it had something to do with “the lifestyle?”

The police didn’t think her husband’s death was an accident and believed it was connected to Madeline’s death. As a favor, Harper takes a cop over the couple’s mansion—one that doubled as “the lifestyle club”—for questioning and undercover work. It was just a sex club. What would Harper be nervous about?

“They were just lying to all her friends because one of them might’ve killed her husband.” No biggie.

I enjoyed the clever and witty narrative. The sex club scene was too funny! I especially enjoyed seeing the cop’s reaction to it all.

Harper, along with the hot cop, would dig deep to find out the truth behind the death of her husband and friend.

Story had a good narrative, but it was kind of long and slow at times. And some of the choppy one-word sentences didn’t really add much.

The mystery grabbed me from the beginning. I enjoyed it every step of the way until we got about half-way in, when the whole thing really slowed down for me. The narrative had become much too trivial for my liking. It still keeps the mystery going, but not at the same pace as the first half. This would’ve been rated 4 stars, but that snag in the middle brought it down to 3.5.

Overall, this was a pretty good mystery. I just would’ve liked it more had it been quicker and shorter.

Rating: 3.5 stars

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Who is Vanessa M. Knight? Well, I’m an author. Wow. After years and years of wanting to use those words, that is fun to say. It’s almost as fun as supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Did I spell that right?

I write contemporary romantic suspense.

I live in Chicagoland with my family and menagerie of four-legged friends. In my mind, these lovely animals do everything as they should. I’m the alpha, keeping peace and harmony amongst my humble servants. In real life, they own me. I’m the maid, here for their feeding pleasure. Well, that and to clean up their messes.

When not catering to the needs of adorably-furry faces, I slug through the nine to five grind and head home so I can write. Of course, that’s after I make dinner and clean the house and all the other tasks that go into family life. So really, I work, cater to animals and my family… and then, if I don’t fall face first into bed, I write. I love putting my characters into crazy situations and watching how they react. I hope you love reading about them.

I love to hear from fans. I can be found on Facebook at VanessaMKnight and at www.vanessamknight.com.

Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VanessaMKnight

FB LINK: https://www.facebook.com/vanessamknightauthor

Amazon Author page LINK: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Vanessa-M.-Knight/author/B00JZBJ3EO

Website: www.VanessaMKnight.com

Buy Links:

Swing into Murder:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Final-Strike-Vanessa-M-Knight-ebook/dp/B09CFRCFWL

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/swing-into-murder/id6446869159

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/swing-into-murder-vanessa-m-knight/1143269798

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/swing-into-murder