Peril in the Park (Jamie Quinn Mystery, Book 3)

BARBARA VENKATARAMAN

Synopsis from Goodreads: There's big trouble in the park system. Someone is making life difficult for Jamie Quinn's boyfriend, Kip Simons, the new director of Broward County parks. Was it the angry supervisor passed over for promotion? The disgruntled employee Kip recently fired? Or someone with a bigger ax to grind? If Jamie can't figure it out soon, she may be looking for a new boyfriend because there’s a dead guy in the park and Kip has gone missing! With the help of her favorite P.I., Duke Broussard, Jamie must race the clock to find Kip before it’s too late.

Stats for my copy: Kindle edition, 2014.

How acquired: Bought.

First line: “You know how Floridians always say, 'We don't care how you did it in New York?'” Kip asked me, exasperated.

My thoughts: Jamie Quinn is back, and once again trouble seems to be following her, with another mystery popping up in her life. She and Parks Director Kip are a steady item now, and shady things are going on in the Parks Department. Kip is under a lot of stress with his job, but won't talk about it much, and Jamie doesn't really know what all going on, other than a vandal being on the loose. Then she gets a mysterious email from someone going by the name I-C-U, with pictures of she and Kip at various locations, and warning her to tell her boyfriend to back off. From there things just get more and more mysterious as Jamie, and her PI friend Duke, are drawn into investigating the vandalism and the murder of another PI, with ties to the Parks dept.

Meanwhile, Jamie and her stepmother are still trying to get her father's visa application approved so he can come back to the US.

There's not much more I can say without giving away plot points that should be revealed to the reader along with Jamie. But I can say that it's an enjoyable read, with the mystery surrounding Kip's job having one unpredictable plot twist after another. Jamie is a fun narrator and character, the type of person I'd like to be friends with. A quick breezy read with a nice little mystery tidily wrapped up in the end. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of trouble Jamie finds next. 

And I LOVE the cover picture! 

 I do recommend reading this series in order, starting with DEATH BY DIDGERIDOO (click the title to see my review... 

And then THE CASE OF THE KILLER DIVORCE:

Like the first book in the Jamie Quinn series it was a quick, fun read. I'm enjoying the character of Jamie and her breezy humorous narration. The mystery, with the soon to be ex-husband of Jamie's client suddenly dying, didn't feel quite as well developed as the mystery plot in the first book, and was resolved just a little abruptly, but it was still enjoyable. I was glad to see Duke back, but was hoping for more of Nick “Mr. State Attorney” Dimitropoulos - Jamie runs into an old flame and starts dating him, but I was wanting to see Nick become a love interest. Still, this was a perfect light read while recovering from hurting my back during my recent move.