A.H. Gabhart: Murder at the Courthouse *2-BOOK GIVEAWAY*

By Kelly Bridgewater

From Amazon

Back Cover Copy:

After a few years as a police officer in Chicago, Michael Keane has no trouble relaxing into the far less stressful job of deputy sheriff in his small hometown. After all, nothing ever happens in Hidden Springs, Kentucky. Nothing, that is, until a dead body is discovered on the courthouse steps. Everyone in town is a little uneasy. Still, no one is terribly worried--after all the man was a stranger--until one of their own is murdered right on Main Street.

As Michael works to solve the case it seems that every nosy resident in town has a theory. When the sheriff insists Michael check out one of these harebrained theories, his surprising discovery sends him on a bewildering search for a mysterious killer that has him questioning everything he has ever believed about life in Hidden Springs.

My Thoughts:

Nothing is better than curling up with a good mystery in a comfy chair and getting lost in whodunit for a couple of hours. I prefer to do this over reading any other genre. Well, except World War II fiction, that has been grabbing and holding my attention for a while now. Anyways, when I saw the title on A.H. Gabhart’s latest release Murder at the Courthouse, I knew I wanted to read it.

While the writing is okay with plenty of description to anchor the reader in Hidden Springs, the prose got a little heavy at times. For a mystery, which should be fast paced with lots of hunting for clues, Gabhart’s Murder at the Courthouse had a LOT of backstory filling the pages. Sometimes I would be reading something and scratch my head. Why was I learning about this event that happened so many years ago? Gabhart would repeat herself and tell the same story later. I was confused.

Gabhart does do a good job at creating characters with backstory. I enjoyed getting to see Micheal’s scars and watch him overcome them. I was proud to see him road to success.

As for the mystery, which is why I picked up the book anyway, it didn’t capture my attention like most mysteries should. It dragged on and on and on. In the first couple of chapters, I had a suspicion the bad guy was, and as the story progressed, I watched this person. They kept doing things to prove my theory. At the end, it was this person. No surprise. Gabhart left a pretty big trial of clues for avid readers like me to figure out who the bad guy was pretty early. I kept wanting to do other things, like cook and clean. Murder at the Courthouse did not capture my attention.

Another weird thing is the mention of Karen, the preacher in town. Michael mentioned her a couple of times, but then the ending had them wanting to be together forever. Kind of out of the blue. I didn’t understand this. The romance really didn’t develop across the pages of the story.

Overall, Murder at the Courthouse is a slow moving mystery with a predictable ending. 

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I received a complimentary copy of Murder at the Courthouse from Revell Publishing and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

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