Circle of Influence (The Zoe Chambers Mysteries, Book 1) by Annette Dashofy by L. A. Keller
This month's book could be considered a cozy as it doesn't contain any graphic sex or violence and the main character is not a crime solver by profession. Although there are several murders, the overall theme is one of letting go of your mistakes in order to move forward. It was an enjoyable read with enough suspense to keep me turning the pages.
Zoe Chambers is an EMT in a very small Pennsylvania town. For such a little place, there is plenty of mystery and several murders which surround the town councilmen. Zoe’s career is to save lives but in this book she has more reason to not save some of them.
We meet Zoe when she and her work partner are heading to the town council meeting. I’m going to point out a few issues with the story which are all in the early chapters. Once the story develops, I found fewer things that bothered me.
I was struck at once by a reference to the “fur-trimmed hood of her parka” which made me wonder what EMT’s earn and why she would have fur on a work coat. As we find out later, Zoe doesn’t make any money so I think this was just a reference the author should have corrected to faux fur.
I never like a major character dump in the first few pages. It generally makes me wonder if I need to take notes to remember them all. As the story unfolds the reader finds the significance, however I would have preferred to meet them more slowly to permit the main characters to be established first.
The town’s chief of police, Pete is introduced and initially cannot remember the name of his secretary’s granddaughter. Since she worked at the police department for years, I was surprised by this. Later, he seems completely familiar with the entire family.
I will try to mention this next point without giving away the story. The behavior of the grandson doesn’t ring true to me. Events happen in his life and his reaction to them is unrealistic. First due to their significance for a teenager and second because he’s a teenager. There are a couple of scenes where the characters’ reactions don’t fit with what you would expect given the circumstances. I found this to be the case for the main character Zoe as well as a few of the secondary characters.
My only other slight objection was the transition between characters. Rather than break at a chapter end, the author switches in third person to a different character. This tends to catch the reader by surprise and is too abrupt. I would prefer the switch to be done more smoothly.
Those are the negatives. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The story moved along well, and the author included enough suspense and action to keep me reading. I was able to figure out the murderer well before the middle of the book, but I still enjoyed a few twists at the end.
I will probably get the second book in the series to see what happens in Zoe’s life. I hope the misses I found in the first book are not present in the second one.
Circle of Influence
Happy Trails,
Leslie
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