I read it on vacation & left it in the airport....

Savannah is a plus sized, former police office who now runs a PI firm in the sleepy beach town of San Carmelita. She works along side police detective Dirk Coulter, who is her "boyfriend" and who she loves to feed home cooked Southern foods....

Dirk has asked Savannah to help him with the murder case of the wife of an infamous diet "doctor" (who uses hypnosis with his clients) is found at the foot of the cliff of their sea side home.... Her corpse showed signs of struggle & blunt force trauma and the jewelry she was wearing that night (rented from a big name jeweler) is gone.

The doctor (a con man w/ a shady Las Vegas past) was having a affair w/ two different patients; one pregnant w/ his child, the other an abused wife whose husband has recently come into a large sum of cash and has recently moved into the doctors gated community.

Chasing the doctor are two very disgruntled men; a bad guy (ex-partner & con man) from Las Vegas and a patient who he promised to help quit gambling w/ his infamous method of treatment.

On top of all of this the doctor's wife was having an affair and it turns out, she wasn't his wife after all..... There is no lack of suspects.

To make matters even more complicated, Dirk is of his feed and is upsetting Savannah a great deal by refusing to eat & leaving her abruptly.......

Meh.... The story line of the murder was fine (I never figured out who did it), but the involved characters were really detestable people and Savannah was bitchy throughout the entire book.... ( )

cozy mystery, stolen identity, weight loss

This is the first book that I have read by this author. It was a fun read and I didn't guess "whodunnit" until the very end of the book. The characters were likeable the story was well-developed. ( )

While not quite in a league with some of the other mystery novelists I frequently read in order to chill, G.A.McKevett is certainly more than adequate. Her central character, Savannah Reid is likable and amusing. Her love interest, Detective Sergeant Dirk Coulter is appropriately masculine and an overall nice guy, and the other characters are a reasonably nice balance between cliche and real people, which makes the story fun to read. I didn't find myself feeling like I knew what was going to happen next. While not so challenging for me, the blended themes of domestic violence, foster/kinship care, and neglectful parenting that appear in _wicked Cravings_ might be disturbing to some; I know that those unfortunate facts of some people's real lives can be disturbing,
It's not a book with a message, but some of the material it touches on in order to build the story certainly comes from aspects of life that ought not to happen.

I love all the Savannah Reid mysteries. How can I not? She introduced me to Chunky Monkey ice cream!!

Granny Reed is visiting Savannah and Dirk are working a murder case. But the real mystery concerns Dirk. Why is he dieting and refusing Savannah's southern style cooking, working out, getting expensive haircuts, and buying expensive clothes? ( )