THE WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE AND HER JUST OKAY ASSISTANT

The 20-something personal assistant to a New York City famous private detective earns her sleuthing wings working an apparent suicide case that turns murkier and more entangled than she expects.

Getting hired to work with Aubrey Merritt is a dream come true for fact-checker Olivia Blunt until she discovers that all Aubrey seems to want is a secretary rather than a full-fledged partner. Then Aubrey accepts a case from Haley Summersworth, who believes her mother Victoria’s apparent suicide was actually a murder. She invites Olivia to drive her to the scene of the crime on Vermont’s Lake Champlain and assist with investigations. Ambitious and eager to prove her worth, Olivia tries to pass her formidable boss’ many tests of observation and not get fired like the assistants that preceded her, all while holding on to a relationship back in New York. It soon becomes clear that too much about Victoria’s death does not make sense. Vibrant and charming, Victoria had a personal life—which included a recovering addict son accused of mismanaging the family business, marriage to an unfaithful man who died under mysterious circumstances, and an ex-con lover—that points to a dark web of intrigue. After one of Victoria’s stepchildren turns up dead and Olivia stumbles into a life-threatening situation, a case that had seemed so simple turns into her worst nightmare. Using conventional plotting tropes that gradually build to a grand reveal rather than surprise revelations through rapid and/or unexpected twists, this novel succeeds through memorable characters at odds with each other (and sometimes themselves) across generational divides.

A solidly entertaining read, especially for lovers of traditional mysteries.