The Advice Column Murders by Leslie Nagel
Book #3: Oakwood Mystery Series
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 4½/5 stars

Charley Carpenter’s neighborhood isn’t just a collection of houses where a bunch of strangers live. Charley Carpenter’s neighborhood is a community, a collection of people who look after one another, help one another, and generally like one another. And then the Sharpe family moved in.

Paxton Sharpe isn’t a nice man, his oldest son is rude, his stepdaughter is decidedly weird, his wife is somewhat pathetic, and the twins are just so sad. Despite every effort, Charley hasn’t been able to make any headway with the Sharpe family. She’s waved, said hello, tried to engage in conversation, but not a single Sharpe is having any of the friendliness. In fact, all the Sharpe’s seem to want to do is be miserable.

And misery loves company . . . .

As Charley soon discovers, the Sharpe’s are hiding all kinds of naughty and dangerous secrets, and those secrets result in two heinous murders. Of course, Charley is going to poke around and ask some questions. While she would normally be investigating the crimes with her boyfriend, the still luscious Marcus Trenault, Marcus is on the outs with his boss and has been banned from the case. The problems seem to keep piling on, and on more than one occasion, Charley comes face-to-face with a few wretched cops who are hell-bent on getting it all wrong. With the threat of imprisonment hanging over her head, the possibility of getting Marcus into serious trouble, and two murders to solve, Charley is up to her butt in drama yet again.

The Bottom Line: Holy cats!! This installment of the Oakwood Mysteries series took a turn toward the darker side and I LOVED IT!! This is by far the darkest of the first three books and I really got into this story. Charley has a hot mess of a family to deal with if she is going to unravel ALL the Sharpe family mysteries. The family is sad, angry, resentful, and steeped in crap that all finally blows up like a huge volcano and Charley is in the thick of the lava flow. What’s more, Charley’s personal life sees some HUGE changes in this read which creates even more of an emotional rollercoaster ride. There really is a great deal of business being dealt with in this installment and I feel like it is really setting up the next several installments in the series. That works for me! The longer this series goes on and the more developed the characters become, the more I am digging it! ( )

Charley Carpenter is unsettled because her boyfriend is out of town and her business is undergoing renovations but the worst is her insomnia which isn't helped by the new neighbors who are constantly yelling at the top of the voices. One of the neighbors reaches out to Charley apparently for help but their conversation is cut short and never continued because of murder. Was she also seeking help in the advice columns?

Charley feels a need to find justice for the young woman and doesn't believe that the good old boys in the sheriff's office are capable of doing that. Can she, or will she become the next victim because of their incompetence?

I like this series, the characters and the writing. ( )

This is such a great little series. Charley is in for a lot of surprises when she finally meets her new neighbors; they are one big mystery to her. From Dr. Paxton’s early morning screaming matches then tearing off in his Mercedes to the young woman who tries to reach out to Charley late one evening to talk about something. The young woman is cut off by her mom, calling her home before they could finish their conversation. The young woman seems to be too old to be the daughter of Judith, Dr. Paxton’s wife who has a set of four-year-old twins. Marc is out of town, and Charley is having her shop renovated so she's at loose ends. When a murder happens next door, things start getting crazy; there seems to be only a few people who could have committed the murder and worse yet, the Chief of police is letting the Sheriff’s department handle the case which is a total bust. When Marc returns home, he’s under strict orders to stay away from this case. Charley is determined to find the killer anyway. She finds herself in hot water with the Sheriff’s department and things are not looking so hot for Marc either. She’s found out a lot of secrets about the Paxton’s and none of them are good. Can she flush out the killer before it’s too late?
I would like to thank NetGalley for providing me with an e-galley of this book for my honest opinion. ( )

The Advice Column Murders
By
Leslie Nagel

What it's all about...

Charlie literally discovers a murder that occurs right next door! These neighbors are kind of odd...strange...not neighborly at all but Charlie and her family find themselves caught up in the midst of this crime! Charlie cannot help but become involved in solving this murder. She and her boyfriend...also involved with the police department...are in this from the beginning to the end.

Why I wanted to read it...

This was a new series for me. The book that I read was the third in this series. I wasn’t at all lost and I felt as though the author did a winning job of fleshing out the main characters. The book moved at a fast pace...I never really knew who the villain was. That made the book very sustainable for me.

What made me truly enjoy this book...

Charlie was a fun lead character. The fact that she has a reputation for solving crimes made her even more interesting. This book was so good that I want to read the first two books, too!

Why you should read it, too...

My advice is that readers who love fun and exciting cozy mysteries will love this book as well as the first two in the series.

I received an advance reader’s copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley and Amazon. It was my choice to read it and review it. ( )