Scene of the Grime

Grime Solvers Mystery #1

by Suzanne Price

Starting a new life in the quaint town of Pigeon Cove, recently widowed Sky Taylor, with her writing and cleaning skills in high demand, airs the dirty laundry of the town when one of its residents is murdered. Original.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Cozy

229 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 5, 2007

About the author

Suzanne Price is a pseudonym for Jerome Preisler and his wife Suzanne.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun cozy mystery.

Sky Taylor runs a cleaning service. One day, when cleaning one of her regular customers (a B&B) she finds one of the guests dead. Murdered. Unfortunately, as she was cleaning the hallway leading to his room, she mistook a bloody fingerprint for a kid's jammy fingerprint, and cleaned it off the wall. Did she erase all clues to who the murderer might be?

Turns out there is a lot going on in this story...Sky is a widow and there might be a reporter that she is attracted to. And then there's the murdered man....everyone loved him. Who could have done this? Sky feels that she needs to find out.

I laughed out loud several times reading this book. Sky is intelligent and funny. She also has a big heart. Fortunately, the author did not feel she needed to add any eccentric sidekicks to make this a fun, and plausible, read. Highly recommend this one and I will continue the series.

[Nancy H · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting series, featuring a main character who is a house cleaner as well as a newspaper writer. In this story, a very good friend of hers is killed, and after she finds the body and begins to investigate, she discovers that her friend had deep, dark secrets that were ultimately responsible for his death. This story has a good plot, good characters, and a good setting, and is definitely a good read.

[Deanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn to the story of a house cleaner solving mysteries. This was not so much a character purposefully looking to solve a crime, but sort of falling into it. I enjoyed the main character and her storyline. The other characters were sort of superficial but enjoyable. I am looking forward to the next book to see where it goes.

I always like books that teach me a little and this one gives some good house cleaning tips.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool little read. Enjoyable.

[Drebbles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recently widowed Sky Taylor moved to the small town of Pigeon Cove in Massachusetts where she writes a newspaper column and runs a cleaning business. Her business is thriving and she's made many friends in Pigeon Cove including her landlord Chloe Edwards and Abe Monahan, a frequent guest at the Millwood Bed and Breakfast, one of Sky's clients. Sky enjoys talking to "Old" Abe and when she hears he's back in town she gets to work early to say hello to him. But instead of saying hello she gets to say goodbye when she stumbles across his murdered body. Sky is devastated by Abe's death and her colleague on the newspaper, crime reporter Mike Ennis, seems all too willing to comfort her. Even though Sky begins to date Mike she's afraid he's dating her to get information about Abe's murder. While Sky wonders who could have killed Abe - one of the townspeople or one of the strangers that has recently appeared in town - she has problems of her own when someone steals her car. As she investigates the murder Sky begins to realize that Abe wasn't who she thought he was and that in life, unlike books, loose ends aren't always tied up.

"Scene of the Grime" is a nice light cozy mystery. Sky is a delightful heroine, making a new life for herself after the death of her husband. Her somewhat unorthodox and original cleaning tips add much to the humor in the book. Her reflections about her parents add much depth to her character and I loved that fact that she took in Abe's cat after he died. The other characters are equally well written, especially Sky's best friend, the slightly eccentric Chloe Edwards, who does a lot of volunteer work, is respected in town, and is addicted to reading mystery novels and watching Court TV. One very funny character is newspaper receptionist Pam DiGallucci, better known as The Digger because of her habit of digging into people's private lives. Mike is a nice complex character with secrets that aren't totally revealed in this book. There's a scene in the book where he and Sky go out to eat at his uncle's restaurant that is funny from beginning to end. Author Suzanne Price (pseudonym for Jerome Preisler and his wife Suzanne) does a good job of making the New England background come to life. As for the mystery itself, it's pretty obvious who the murderer is but it's fascinating to read the many secrets about Abe's life as they are revealed. The ending of the book is very sweet and will really make readers like Mike.

"Scene of the Grime" is well done.

[Ahtims · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an okay book, not much upto my expectations, though I got a few tips on how to clean the house, and felt like doing a spring cleaning of my house, the murder mystery as such didnot appeal much to me. Characters somehow felt insipid, couldnot identify myself with the heroine or her friends, or even with the victim or killers, for that matter.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I admit that any book that advertises cleaning tips included is clearly not my type of book, I was still disapointed in Scene of the Grime. the characters were weak, the mystery very thin, and the ending pulled out of a hat. I found myself not caring about who, what, or why, but how many, as in how many pages were left.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice start to the New Year. This cozy mystery is the first of a series. I enjoyed it. I like the main character and the story line stayed interesting. Definitely looking forward to the next in the series to see where it goes next.

[Libbeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, I found this a little dull.

[Janeene · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars - quick read - will read next one in series to see how the characters develop

[Dorothy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I rarely start a book and don't finish it, but this one just didn't grab me. The writing was weak at best and the characters were too flat for my taste.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always like a mystery with twists and turns, this one fit the bill. The house cleaning tips were fabulous.

[Dogsandbooks]

Donated to DPL