Dead Weight

E.J. Pugh #10

by Susan Rogers Cooper

E.J. Pugh’s Weight Watchers’ group is supposed to help members lose pounds – not their lives . . .

When Berta Harris of E.J.’s Weight Watchers’ group succumbs to an untimely death, amateur sleuth E.J. is puzzled. Why was Kerry Killian, the realtor selling Berta’s house, was murdered the day after E.J. questioned her? What does this have to do with Berta’s mysterious death? And why would anyone in the group want to put on weight? As E.J. immerses herself in these big questions, her marriage to husband Willis grows increasingly strained. Can Pugh solve the mystery around the deaths and save her own marriage?

Genres: Mystery

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2012

About the author

Susan Rogers Cooper is an American mystery novelist. A self-proclaimed "half fifth generation Texan; half Yankee", she sets her novels in Texas (the E.J. Pugh and Kimmey Kruse novels) and in Oklahoma (the Sheriff Milt Kovak novels). She is currently living in Central Texas, coming up with fresh new ways to get her characters into trouble.

Reviews

[Ahtims · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cozy mystery which started as 3 stars worthy and ended up with a mediocre 2 stars.
An amateur sleuth E J, with an ever suffering husband Willis, her 4 children (own as well as adopted ) try to solve the mystery of an amnesic woman who is being pursued by killers, another woman who befriended the amnesic gets killed , and a neighbour with a couple of secrets.
She is juggling her cookery shows, private life and sleuthing. .. and is able to solve the mystery.
But the story seemed flippant and contrived. After 60% , I read on just to finish the book.

[Jerry B · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Weight” is the penultimate entry in Cooper’s (now) 11-book EJ Pugh series about a sometime romance writer turned amateur sleuth. We tend to prefer the author’s other set (Sheriff Milt Kovak), as EJ is little better than a busybody who happens to occasionally ferret out whodunit ere the police get around to a solution. Her habit of adopting stray children (she and husband Willis have three 15-year-old daughters, two of whom are adopted) while sometimes endangering her family with her murder solving gambits has finally caused a big rift with hubby, who goes to live with Mom for a while. In the plot, a weight-loss group acquaintance dies, followed a day later by the murder of that woman’s realtor. EJ can’t resist trying to figure out what happened – and, as in most of these tales, apparently the police are content to poke along at a ho-hum pace, no doubt construed to let EJ have her fun. Meanwhile, natural daughter Megan, who narrates about a third of the story (her passages well marked, unlike the returns to EJ as narrator), is busy babysitting and is suspecting the woman hiring her of having an affair. Based on no evidence at all, EJ promptly concludes she’s “seeing” Willis! Eventually the whole thing wraps up in very untidy style.

As with book #9 (“Full Circle”), despite being long-time Cooper readers, we were not that entertained with this outing. It seems like the author is struggling to craft enjoyable mysteries without an overload of family angst. Perhaps we are better off ditching EJ once and for all for Sheriff Kovak.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Naturally writer E. J. Pugh attends a funeral for Berta. She didn't know the woman well, but they'd been in the same diet group. Imagine her surprise when a woman who was a close friend of Berta's is murdered! There's something strange happening (I'm being very careful to avoid spoilers), and E. J. can't help investigating, even though her husband is really unhappy about it, and other things, and her four children--two biological, one adopted, one foster--are full of teen-aged angst, especially daughter Megan.

[April · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an OK cozy, a fun way to spend an hour or so. E.J. Pugh is a sassy middle-aged wife and mother who's just lost a ton of weight. She gets involved with the mysterious apparent death of a fellow weight loss member. I didn't really like the characters all that much...kind of like Joan Hess' Maggody series, but not as funny. I also thought it was odd the way she would shift voices to the teenage daughter, but have no mark in the text for when she shifted back to the mother's voice. That having been said, I thought the teenage daughter's narcissism was hilarious and so true to type!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical of Susan Rogers Cooper's E.J. Pugh mysteries, E.J. gets involved in investigating another murder despite the objections of her husband and her detective next door neighbor. The difference in this one is the parts told from her daughter Megan's viewpoint. The mystery within a mystery had a bit of a surprise solution which was a little bit of a cheat on the author's part in my opinion. No real clues were given that could lead the reader to the correct conclusion.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first in this series I've read. Okay, do couples really act that ridiculously? I can't imagine its possible! The mystery was well done and I enjoyed the dual perspective from mother to daughter.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it at first but then the family drama got too serious. and I never quite followed the ending either..

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the Windtalkers of books, meaning, worst book I've ever read.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

EJ, with her poor parenting skills, her seeming non-stop conclusion jumping, and her disregard for just about any authority figure, is truly getting on my nerves.

[Judy Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

E. J. Pugh is a little silly but a lot of fun. Easy read on a cold rainy afternoon.

[Lea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll preface this by saying that this year I'm challenging myself to read outside of my usual genres. I don't normally read crime, especially ones in a series, but I was interested in the premise of this book. Then I got a third of the way through and I totally lost interest. It was a slog, but the hope that a good ending would make it worth it pushed me on.

I just didn't enjoy it. The behaviour of the main character E.J. was too hard for me to buy into, I'm all for strong females, but she was reckless in a bad way.

The writing too wasn't my cup of tea. Although the idea of dual perspective with mother and daughter (Megan) was interesting, in the end just seemed a little shallow and pointless - admittedly, I let myself skim over a few of Megan's parts. Besides which, the voice was jarring to me - I'm not sure what it was, maybe too caricaturish?

I gave it two stars, because, despite wanting to skip ahead through large sections, I *did* want to find out the ending.

In honesty, this is the kind of book where I'd have rather read a Wikipedia synopsis and saved myself the time.