In which trek reviews Revenge Served Cold

Rebecca over at The Cadence Group asked me to read and review Revenge Served Cold, the newly-released second installment in the Anne Marshall series by Jackie Fullerton. Now that I have completed reading the book, here are my thoughts.

Revenge Served Cold is a legal thriller served with a paranormal twist. Protagonist Anne Marshall is a court reporter by day and a law student by night. Shaken, not stirred, into her busy schedule is her moon-lighting career as a murder investigator. The supernatural flavor of the series is added by the frequent appearances of the ghost of Anne's father, James, who is her co-conspiritor in crime fighting.

Anne and James have their hands full in this case: Kathy Spence is accused of running down her law professor husband, Elliot, and with Elliot's blood all over the front-end of Kathy's car, the circumstantial evidence looks pretty convincing. Except that both James and Anne feel that the evidence is just too "pat". If Kathy did run down Elliot, why would she park the car only a couple of blocks from home, in plain sight? And how could Kathy have managed to drive the car anyway?

Fullerton dishes up a lot of action. Anne's dad slips in and out, providing her with information to help solve the mystery. Unlike some other paranormal stories I've read, being a ghost does not render James omniscient and I liked that. Nothing more annoying than a know-it-all phantom.

Anne herself is convinced that Kathy didn't kill her husband. Ms Marshall pours her heart into proving Kathy's innocence, recruiting her friends and college colleagues and since no murder mystery would be complete without an element of danger, Fullerton delivers a dessert of terror towards the end.

My only complaint is that I knew exactly who did what, why they did it, and how they made it happen by page twenty-six. Not too much suspense there.

Still, it was an enjoyable read which moved along at a comfortable clip and I enjoyed it enough to go back for the series opener, Piercing the Veil.