What do you think?
Rate this book
Key West Murder Mystery #2
Killer in Control
Kitt Morgan's hope of a singing career dies after a botched surgery. Moving forward, she earns a job on her Iowa town's police force, trying for a law enforcement career like her father's.While on suspension for shooting an unarmed criminal, Kitt visits her sister at her Key West B&B. Here, she becomes embroiled in the murder investigation of Abra Barrie, a former B&B guest. While Kitt tries to find the murderer, the Iowa grand jury declares her shooting of the criminal an act of self-defense. She's free to return to her police job. But does she want to? Big questions remain in Key West. Who is the killer? Is Kitt next on his list?
- GenresMystery
274 pages, Hardcover
First published June 15, 2011
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 21, 2014
My review for this book will be linked back here at a later date.
July 18, 2017
-Dialogue is stiff and unrealistic.
-Main character is very unbelievable as a police officer - she's afraid of everything. She is also quite fickle, all worried about someone but then allowing them to fawn over her. I found her to be incredibly annoying. One line from the book said it best " . . . a warning for me - a warning that I lacked the emotional stability to handle a police job or any job involving a lethal weapon." Ya think?
-The fixation on the Prius is really annoying. Yes, she has a hybrid. Yes, it's fuel efficient. A lot of people have Prius's. They've been around since 1997. I thought, maybe this book was written a while back, but no, it was published in 2011. Then I thought, perhaps she's writing this as if it took place before 2011. A possibility, I suppose, but not based on other clues in the book.
-Did someone proofread this book? I know mistakes get made, spell check doesn't catch too/to/two but the errors, including punctuation, were annoying. I'd think if you were about to publish a book, you'd have several people read, including some who are meticulous about errors.
-Luckily I'm a fast reader, so I only wasted my time for a part of a day. I like to give authors/books a chance because I'm always on the lookout for another good mystery series. I'm tempted to try a second book, just to see if they get better.
-Main character is very unbelievable as a police officer - she's afraid of everything. She is also quite fickle, all worried about someone but then allowing them to fawn over her. I found her to be incredibly annoying. One line from the book said it best " . . . a warning for me - a warning that I lacked the emotional stability to handle a police job or any job involving a lethal weapon." Ya think?
-The fixation on the Prius is really annoying. Yes, she has a hybrid. Yes, it's fuel efficient. A lot of people have Prius's. They've been around since 1997. I thought, maybe this book was written a while back, but no, it was published in 2011. Then I thought, perhaps she's writing this as if it took place before 2011. A possibility, I suppose, but not based on other clues in the book.
-Did someone proofread this book? I know mistakes get made, spell check doesn't catch too/to/two but the errors, including punctuation, were annoying. I'd think if you were about to publish a book, you'd have several people read, including some who are meticulous about errors.
-Luckily I'm a fast reader, so I only wasted my time for a part of a day. I like to give authors/books a chance because I'm always on the lookout for another good mystery series. I'm tempted to try a second book, just to see if they get better.
October 29, 2017
Life changes at times when one would least expect those changes. One day at a time and seek for the best of each of those days.
June 3, 2021
This is a very predictable and not very mysterious mystery. Doubt that I will read any more in the series, if there are any more.
February 18, 2012
Dorothy Francis takes readers back to Key West in Killer in Control and it’s another good very atmospheric cozy style mystery from the author. Full of guilt and heavy with memories, suspended Iowa police officer Kitt Morgan plans on spending time with her sister, Janell and her husband, Rex at their bed and breakfast inn, “The Poinsetta” located at Key West. When she isn’t lecturing one and all about her Prius and how environmentally responsible it is, Kitt’s plan is to relax as much as possible and try not to think about her role in the shooting back home in snowy Iowa. Something that is never far from her thoughts as her police officer father never once shot anyone during his long career.
Sensing something wrong on her arrival, it is not long before Janell and Rex explain to Kitt that they are in real trouble. Fortunately, despite the fact that Rex is bald, it does not mean he is dying of cancer as Kitt quickly suspects on arrival. Instead, one of their guests is dead. Abra Barrie was murdered. Not at the bed and breakfast but elsewhere. They are involved since she was a guest and there is evidence indicating someone at the inn was involved. Both Janell and Rex, as well as their small staff, are suspects in the murder case. Janell and Rex would like Kitt Morgan to quietly investigate, when she is not relaxing and seeing the sites, to clear their names and the business.
How can Kitt tell her sister and her husband no? She can’t. The problem with that, is by sticking her nose in the case when she is not seeing the sites of Key West and the immediate area, she makes herself the target of a killer. While the suspects are many because they are all eccentric in various ways there is only one killer among them. A self-proclaimed “killer in control” who will strike again in this cozy style novel before the case is solved. Despite all Kitt’s reading and experience, and a sister who seems to know much more about police investigative work than she does, it isn’t an easy case to solve when some many characters fit the profile of sociopathic behavior.
Dorothy Francis has penned yet another enjoyable stand alone novel set at Key West. Once again she recounts the sights and sounds along with the unique history of the area while assembling a cast of rather eccentric characters for her latest cozy style mystery tale. A tale of serial murder that fittingly eventually ends on the beach. Killer in Control is another solidly good story from this talented author.
Killer in Control: A Key West Mystery
Dorothy Francis
http://www.dorothyfrancis.com
Five Star
http://www.gale.cengage.com/fivestar/
ISBN# 978-1-43282-502-7
July 2011
Hardback
274 Pages
$25.95
Material in the form of an ARC was provided quite some time ago by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2012
reviews, news and more http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/
Sensing something wrong on her arrival, it is not long before Janell and Rex explain to Kitt that they are in real trouble. Fortunately, despite the fact that Rex is bald, it does not mean he is dying of cancer as Kitt quickly suspects on arrival. Instead, one of their guests is dead. Abra Barrie was murdered. Not at the bed and breakfast but elsewhere. They are involved since she was a guest and there is evidence indicating someone at the inn was involved. Both Janell and Rex, as well as their small staff, are suspects in the murder case. Janell and Rex would like Kitt Morgan to quietly investigate, when she is not relaxing and seeing the sites, to clear their names and the business.
How can Kitt tell her sister and her husband no? She can’t. The problem with that, is by sticking her nose in the case when she is not seeing the sites of Key West and the immediate area, she makes herself the target of a killer. While the suspects are many because they are all eccentric in various ways there is only one killer among them. A self-proclaimed “killer in control” who will strike again in this cozy style novel before the case is solved. Despite all Kitt’s reading and experience, and a sister who seems to know much more about police investigative work than she does, it isn’t an easy case to solve when some many characters fit the profile of sociopathic behavior.
Dorothy Francis has penned yet another enjoyable stand alone novel set at Key West. Once again she recounts the sights and sounds along with the unique history of the area while assembling a cast of rather eccentric characters for her latest cozy style mystery tale. A tale of serial murder that fittingly eventually ends on the beach. Killer in Control is another solidly good story from this talented author.
Killer in Control: A Key West Mystery
Dorothy Francis
http://www.dorothyfrancis.com
Five Star
http://www.gale.cengage.com/fivestar/
ISBN# 978-1-43282-502-7
July 2011
Hardback
274 Pages
$25.95
Material in the form of an ARC was provided quite some time ago by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2012
reviews, news and more http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/
December 5, 2011
I liked this book for it gives a great sense of place and the character of Kitt Morgan is a very likeable police officer on probation for shooting a 'perp'. After the bust gone wrong, she decided to leave Iowa in winter and visit her sister in Key West. Her sister and her husband, runs a B&B with an evening music club and there in lies the tale. The previous week a guest of the B&B had been murdered and the police have few clues of who did it. Everyone has a reason to want the renewable resource energy advocate to feed the fish but everyone seems to have decent alibis.
Janelle, Kitt's sister, has many musicians, guests, gardeners and general helpers who are in and around the B&B all the time and it is like they are one big extended family, so no one could possibly have done it.
I liked the story. It was fun and yet a little long. Kitt owns a Prius and everyone has to talk about it. Kitt was reading about sociopaths and everyone had to talk about them. So there were a few things that dragged, but all in all a great story set in a very nice environment.
Janelle, Kitt's sister, has many musicians, guests, gardeners and general helpers who are in and around the B&B all the time and it is like they are one big extended family, so no one could possibly have done it.
I liked the story. It was fun and yet a little long. Kitt owns a Prius and everyone has to talk about it. Kitt was reading about sociopaths and everyone had to talk about them. So there were a few things that dragged, but all in all a great story set in a very nice environment.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews