Recommendations and a Review

I spend a lot of time reading and not every book I read works out for my review column.  I don't review YA but if anyone is looking for a really good book featuring teens but with a lot of appeal for adults, try Lair of the Serpent by T. Lynn Adams.  If you like books that make you laugh and say "been there, done that" take a look at Fatherhood the Manliest Profession by Matthew Buckley.  I wanted to review this one before Father's Day, but since portions are from an earlier book and I already had a review written for that week, so I didn't do it.  I still loved the book.  One more book that caught my fancy, but has no LDS references, so I reluctantly decided not to review it is The Knight of Redmond by Jennifer K. Clark, a medieval romance. I completely recommend all three of these books.

Here's another review I've had ready for awhile.  Tristi Pinkston's Till Death do us Part features Ida Mae Babbit's wedding preparations.  Being Ida Mae, of course there's a mystery involved.

Till Death Do Us Part by Tristi Pinkston 

Reviewed by Jennie Hansen

 

Tristi Pinkston is ending her Secret Sisters Mystery series with Till Death Do Us Part.  That title bothers me; shouldn't it be 'til not till?  Whatever, it's a fun read and as usual, features Ida Mae Babbitt and her friends, Arletta and Tansy. 

Ida Mae is surprised and excited by widower George Gilmore's proposal.  She met the gentleman in a previous book at a nursing home where he was a temporary patient.  She's also anxious to learn whether her nephew, Ren, or the young journalist, Kevin, will win Arlette's granddaughter, Eden's heart.  George springs one more surprise on her by requesting they get married in two weeks while his children who are visiting are still in town and that they get married in his back yard.  She agrees, but begins a hasty scramble to plan the wedding. On a hasty shopping trip before meeting with George and his family to work out details of the wedding, she discovers the perfect dress.  

Ida Mae is stunned to discover George's home isn't some simple little house with a tiny back yard, but a three story mansion in the most exclusive part of town.  The back yard is a carefully maintained formal garden. George's children don't seem too anxious to welcome her into the family and one daughter seems determined to take over the wedding plans, turning it into a major society event.  When George and Ida Mae escape to the roof for a breather marks the beginning of disasters.  First Ida Mae finds herself locked in an elevator, the dress she picked for her wedding is slashed to shreds, then what appeared to be intimidation turns to life threatening. 

Ida Mae isn't quite as brash in this volume as in the earlier books, but she's still a magnet for mystery and trouble.  She seems a little more mature and cautious too, though she doesn't hesitate to stand up for herself or to go looking for answers.  

Part of the fun of reading a mystery is the element of discovery, picking up on clues that eventually lead to the guilty party.  There aren't a lot of clues scattered through the story which leaves a lot of explaining following the denouement.  Since this is the final book in this series it leans heavily toward wrapping up the continuing story line that carried through the series from Ida Mae and her friends being released from their ward's  Relief Society due to skating a little too close to the law, the triangle relationship involving Eden, Ren, and Kevin, and the strained relationship between Ida Mae and her children.   

Tristi Pinkston is the author of fifteen published books.  She and her husband live in Utah with their four children where in addition to writing, she is a popular blogger, editor, and she frequently presents at various writers' conferences. 

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TILL DEATH DO US PART by Tristi Pinkston, published by Walnut Springs Press, 245 pages. soft cover $17.99, available on Kindle.