Railroaded 4 Murder
The Blurb
Phee’s marriage to PI Marshall Gregory promises to be the wedding of the year in Arizona’s Sun City West, that is, if you ask her mother, Harriet and her book club. But before she can walk down the aisle, it looks like she has to solve one more murder. At a model train exhibit, Phee, Harriet, and their beloved Chiweenie, Streetman, discover the body of Sun City West’s railroad club president, with an incriminating tap shoe near his lifeless corpse.
Wilbur Maines may have loved model trains, but apparently, he was not a model husband. There are rumors of affairs with hot-to-trot hobbyists, the Choo-Choo Chicks. The police suspect his wife and Harriet’s friend, Roxanne, who dances with the Rhythm Tappers, but Phee’s mom is convinced they’re on the wrong track. Before the poor woman is railroaded into spending the rest of her life behind bars, Phee, Harriet, and the book club ladies will need to do some fancy footwork, infiltrate the dance group, and find the real culprit before the killer leaves the station.
The Details
Series: A Sophie Kimball Mystery – Book #8
Author: J.C. Eaton
Genre/Category: Cozy – Book Club/PI
Publisher: Kensington Books
ISBN: 1496724577
Page Count: 336
Rating: 
The Review
The “A Sophie Kimball Mystery” series is one of my favorites. Phee is someone I can relate to easily, her mother’s craziness even more so. The newest book in the series, Railroaded 4 Murder, is the right combination of mystery, suspense, and genuine excitement. The book club is putting its nose in another murder investigation, and Phee ends up being dragged in as usual. Working for a PI firm and being engaged to one of the investigators doesn’t make Phee’s life any easier where her mother and friends are concerned; they think it’s the perfect way to get insider information.
When a model train enthusiast is killed, and a tap shoe is found nearby, all fingers point to his tap-dancing wife, a friend of the book club gang. Phee’s PI firm is investigating, but that won’t stop her mother from using Phee, and her beloved dog, Streetman, to track down a killer. Okay, so Streetman isn’t all that helpful, but who doesn’t love a dancing menace of a pooch? On top of a murder investigation, Phee is also planning her wedding and not having a lot of luck keeping her mother from turning it into a dog and pony show.
The suspects are numerous, the evidence sketchy, and the victim’s wife may be spending the rest of her life behind bars if Phee can’t figure out what happened. Following her instincts and the book club’s secret plan, which isn’t all that secret, Phee and company track down the killer. But nothing about the culprit makes any of them feel any better. Even the PI firm has difficulty believing who the killer is, and even though they helped with the unveiling, it ends up being all on Phee in the end. Railroaded 4 Murder is a wonderfully fast read, with animated characters and enough action and intrigue to stimulate the mind and keep readers guessing. It’s a delightful read in a series that continues to keep smiles on the faces of cozy fans.
The Author
J.C. Eaton is the pen name for the collaborative writing team of Ann I. Goldfarb and James E. Clapp. Together they created a cast of quirky characters. While Ann is a seasoned author in her own right, having eight published YA time travel mysteries to her credit, James, a former winery tasting room manager, has focused on non-fiction with informative blurbs on the wine industry. This unlikely author duo found common ground when they moved to Arizona and realized that the community they were living in was the perfect background for murder mysteries.
Ann admits that she’s definitely “the detail person”, while James is more comfortable with the plotline and the big ideas. Running the dialogue is their favorite pastime in this venture.
Another book from the “Sophie Kimball Mystery” series readers will enjoy Staged 4 Murder or try one of the other series from JC. Eaton, such as Sauvigone for Good from the “The Wine Trail Mysteries” series.
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