Right from the Gecko by Cynthia Baxter

Title: Right from the Gecko

Author: Cynthia Baxter

# pages: 319

Date published: 2007

Genre: cozy mystery

Challenge(s): Casual Reading Challenge, A Well-Rounded Reading Challenge, TBR Challenge, What's in a Name Challenge, What an Animal Challenge

Rating:

(not my favorite)

Setting: Maui, Hawaii

First Sentence:

“Ladies and gentleman, the captain has turned on the seat-belt sign.”

Synopsis (from Barnes&Noble.com): Surf’s up . . . and so are the stakes when veterinarian and amateur sleuth Jessica Popper escapes to the land of hula, hibiscus, and geckos for a professional conference. The last time she and boyfriend Nick Burby touched down on the island of Hawaii, Nick caused a volcanic eruption when he unexpectedly popped The Question to commitment-phobic Jess. But this trip proves just as dangerous when Jess befriends an ambitious young reporter whose body later washes up on the sand . . . and someone thinks Jess holds the clue to the killer’s motive.

There’s no end of suspects among the exotic flora and fauna, from the victim’s journalistic rivals and a mystery boyfriend to an eccentric beachcomber and a governor’s aide with ties to a controversial biotech firm bringing progress to paradise. One of them is a killer with the chameleon-like ability to stay hidden—and if Jessica doesn’t uncover hula-dunnit in time, she’ll be saying aloha . . . permanently.

Random Thoughts: This is the first of Baker’s Reigning Cats and Dogs mysteries. And, honestly, it will probably be the last. Too bad. I had such high hopes. I thought a veterinarian amateur sleuth would be great, but I just couldn’t get into the story. I had a hard time believing that the main character would get involved in the murder to begin with. And I felt that her motivation to continue investigating was very weak. There were other problems as well (the boyfriend doing an about face for no apparent reason, for example), but the thing that really peeved me about the book was that there were practically no animals! Just an abandoned cat that is rarely mentioned.

Has anyone else read any other books in this series? Are any of the others good? Do they have animals in them???

Let’s give people a variety of opinions! If you've reviewed this book (or a book by this author), leave me a link to your review in the comments and I'll link to your review, too!