A Beeline to Murder by Meera Lester from Kensington Books will be published on September 29, 2015 and was a read from NetGalley.  This is a run of the mill, average nothing special about it book which I put down about a third of the way through.  Something about the writing set my teeth on edge, I can’t pinpoint the reason why or point to any one thing. 

Set in Northern California the protagonist is a former cop turned farmer who stumbles upon the murder of the town pastry chef in the first chapter.  This small town farmer is then asked by her best friend, who just happens to be a local police officer, to help document the crime scene.  This is where I really began to grind my teeth but I continued to read on despite my misgivings.

I soldiered on for a few more chapters before giving up and moving on to another book.  The overall tenure of the writing and characters was just off somehow.  A protagonist which couldn’t be describe as a cop, a farmer, or small town sleuth and characters in town which were neither likeable nor memorable.  The “last straw” for me was when the protagonist dresses up in a little black dress and heels for dinner at her best friend’s house.  I mean really who does that?  Not at all believable and made me intensely dislike the characters.

Two stars out of five for decent grammar amongst characters and settings I intensely disliked.

Edit: I did receive an Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for my fair and honest review.