Good Reads: Sky High

Sky High by Susan O'Brien
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sky High is the second book in the Nicki Valentine mystery series. It is a nicely written, full length novel.

Nicki has been a self employed private detective for a year with a home based business doing background checks. She has two small, school aged children and a budding romance with, Dean, one of her past instructors from the PI school. Nicki's character has been fleshed out in this novel, with more information on her past and her philandering late husband. She was a much more well rounded character and I enjoyed her interactions with her best friend.

The Dean character wasn't my favorite. Nicki seems to have well founded reservations about him, but she never openly communicates her concerns. As a result I didn't relate to their relationship.

The runaway groom/murder victim plot was fun and fast paced. The culprit wasn't evident until the end of the book. I like to be kept guessing.

One big problem I had was with a contradiction in the plot. We are told that the woman Nicki's late husband was having an affair with thought that he was separated and didn't know about the children. But toward the end of the book Nicki finds a letter that indicates that she did know about Nicki and the kids. It blows one of the big plot devices out of the water.

Overall, this is a decent read, a good mystery with a so so romance. It ends with a HFN.

ARC provided by Henery Press via Netgalley.