Hidden Body

Jo Durbin Mysteries #0.5

by Norma Huss

A Prequel NoveletteJo Durbin and her sister Sylvie visit a home for sale. When a black cat crosses their path, is it bad luck? Or, does the black cat lead to solving a crime?

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery

44 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 11, 2016

About the author

Norma threw herself into a passion for writing cozy mysteries. She was a member of Penn Writers, Sisters in Crime, and the Willow Valley Communities’ Writer’s Group. She expanded into blog writing for her own website where she adopted the nickname, “The Grandma Moses of Mystery.” The original Grandma Moses was about 80 years old when she had the first big showing of her folk art. Similarly, Norma’s first mystery, “Yesterday’s Body,” was published just before she turned 80. By age 90 she had published several more mysteries and a book of ten short stories. She also wrote a non-fiction retelling of her father’s true-life adventures in 1920’s Alaska.

Reviews

[Krystyna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too short to really live up to it's full potential

A great plot but just too short to really be fulfilling. The sisters as characters were great as was their dialogue but unfortunately the events were rushed and seemed not to really answer all the questions. Hopefully any full length book would fulfill the promise from this work.

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick, fun read. I liked the relationship between the sisters; it read very real. The dialogue is snappy. It is short so the mystery isn't as developed as much as I would like. There were also several instances of sequence of events that didn't make sense. I read the passages twice and still didn't understand getting from here to there.

[Barbara Hackel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short mystery involving people who weren't who they were saying they were, or misrepresenting themselves? The whole thing was confusing. Not my cup of tea, although yay for two sisters getting along and working together.

[mary jane Warrior · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read

[Yvonne Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short story.

A pretty good mystery especially for a short story. It was a clean mystery that had a couple of twists.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it! So witty and awesome characters! This is a must read series! I can’t wait for the next book!

[Shelle Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jo and her sister Sylvie, visit a house for sale on a fact finding inspection for an up and coming open house. The situation becomes uncertain when the owner shows up unexpectedly and tries to put off the inspection for later in the week, then a neighbor stops by and thinks the house is owned by someone else. A quick investigation by the curious sisters lead to an assault victim hidden on the grounds and the investigation begins to turn up more questions than answers as the sisters begin to look into it further.

This was a fun read to open my Month of Cozy. I haven’t read Norma Huss before and I enjoyed her writing style. This prequel novelette seems like a great introduction to the Jo Durbin Series, at least it has me wanting to catch up on it. The sisters make a terrific investigative team and the interplay and dialogue between the two of them had me giggling on places. The secondary characters are colorful and well written. I would have given this a five except for the length, it just felt like the story was a little rushed. I anticipate that this won’t be an issue with the full length novels of the series.

The best part though is the sneak peek at the end of the Yesterday’s Body, which of course also whet my curiosity to continue reading the series.


Originally posted as part of a book spotlight at https://ireadwhatyouwrite.wordpress.c...

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable Read

A short mystery featuring two mature sisters who like to solve mysteries.
I liked the short, snappy dialogue between the sisters and admired their dedication to staying active.

[Marisa]

Amazon - 31/03/2017