Rox Burkey – Blog Place

Joy Wagner Mysteries – Book 2

***** Mystery solving with a twist                              Review by Rox Burkey

Author Cindy Davis continues the escapades of Joy Wagner in the second book in this series. This free-spirited character, Joy, enjoys living simply, traveling by motorcycle, listening to the insightful music in her head, and communicating with her raven feathered toucan, Diablo.

Joy stopped in Uncertain, Florida and made friends with many of the town’s residents during her stay. She always lends a helping hand and is well liked. When the sheriff brings Joy back to town and charges her with murdering her ex-boyfriend no one is happy about this turn of events. Joy makes bail and is out to find the guilty party.

Author Davis does a masterful job of bringing out the characters in rich detail. Her descriptions of the surroundings and snappy dialogue keep this murder mystery exciting, thrilling, and fun. Joy is forced to clear her name and leverages the music in her head, logic, and those folks in Uncertain she knows. I love the snippet below as the author succinctly describes the next person Joy wants to question, revealing how Danny is willing to help his friend regardless of the charges.

The blond Adonis-handsome Dannion Leigh, aka Danny, pushes through the batwing doors wearing a smile that belongs in a toothpaste commercial. When he realizes the identity of his customer, or possibly he sees the lake dirtying the floor under my feet, he races from behind the counter. He stops short two feet away, which is good because Diablo chooses that moment to shake the water from his feathers. Now wetness dapples the walls also. Danny sprints back to the kitchen. When he returns, he’s carrying two towels and a roll of paper towels. One towel he hands to me. He strips off a few paper towels and gestures for Diablo to come closer. Surprisingly, he tips his head and allows Danny to daub away the excess water from his feathers. Then Danny takes the wet towel from me and hands me the dry one.

“Joy, what happened? Why are you bleeding?”

This story is non-stop-action as the layers of crime are peeling like an onion. Each layer takes Joy down a different path and provides different clues. Even Diablo helps offer clues, though not understood without reflection. Your emotions will run the gambit as you turn the pages. It is witty, exciting, nail biting, and the surprise ending makes it worth every second.

I have enjoyed the other works by Cindy Davis. This one is another winner. I highly recommend this story and look forward to book 3.

About the Author

I wrote my first mystery at the age of seven. All I recall is that it was set in Egypt. The funny thing…I’ve since learned my first incarnation was in Egypt. Was my mind trying to tell me something at that age? No idea. My next book was thirty-odd years later, and it set the career for me as a mystery author. Over the years, I’ve won some awards and achieved several Best Sellers, so it’s been a good run. I am also a 23-year veteran editor (www.fiction-doctor.com) working with both fiction and non-fiction.

If you enjoyed, You’re Not the Boss of My Brain, please take a moment to review the book—authors live and die by reviews. If you’re unsure how to do it, just go to amazon.com, click on Write a Customer Review. After that, all you do is choose from one to five stars (hopefully it’s five stars!) and write the thing you liked most—it can be as simple as “I loved this story” or “The characters are awesome.” Thanks so much.

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    2 replies to "You’re Not the Boss of My Brain"

    • Jan Sikes

      This sounds like a fun read, Rox! And when I saw the town, Uncertain, I thought it was going to be Texas. 🙂 I didn’t know there was an Uncertain, Florida. Of course, it may be a fictitious town, but Uncertain, Texas isn’t. Thanks for sharing and best wishes to Cindy!

      • RoxBurkey

        Hey Jan, if you get the time to read it, please let me know if you like her style. I’ve read a couple of her books and I enjoyed each for different reasons. See ya.

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