[Mrs. Y Reviews] Poison by Punctuation by Kelley Kay Bowles

Book cover via Amazon.com

To get ready for this review, I would suggest you have an apple close by, a nice cup of coffee and an open mind. Why? We are going back to school. Specifically, we are going back to yesterday and the same series by Kelley Kaye. Today's adventure includes mystery, suspense, poison, and a man with eyelashes that a beauty guru would kill for. That's right! It's time for a review of "Poison by Punctuation" by Kelley Kay Bowles!

Opinion

I want to again thank Kelley for asking me to review her series; this is her second book in the "Chalkboard Outlines" series featuring the lovely character of Ms. Emma Lovett. Heavens knows Emma is having a time of it; let's be clear. Before I go into the review too far, this book is on Amazon.com. Don't let the weird Goodreads tag or cover situation fool you. If you have trouble navigating from Goodreads to Amazon to find this book, I'd suggest following Kelley on Amazon, and it's listed there.

Let's start with my first impressions. I need desperately to point out how much more I loved the opening of this book than the previous one. Not only does it get to the action faster, but it also has a more quick hook and prologue than the previous one. The prologue in this one is so good that you don't even realize it's a prologue as much as it is valuable information to the plot.

Further, what I think is the best portion of the beginning of the story, has to be the establishment of what happened in the previous book, without re-writing the last book. Sometimes you find when you get to the second series, that writers like to rehash the old work to catch people up. That didn't happen here. We have a tasteful, and it's necessary for the current plot.

Let's go into some critiques. I had a lot of the same evaluations for the way the text and fonts and margins were as yesterday. I am not going to be a broken record, but it's the same eyestrain issues as last time. For more on that check out my previous review on my blog from yesterday.

The difference this time is I get to add one actual "Cliche Much" critique, and that has to do with a potential love triangle. I'm not sure why this love triangle was even necessary or required or anything. Never once did I get the impression that it had to happen. I don't see why men and women cannot work side by side in a platonic relationship. Maybe I'm weird. I also really did not understand why it was necessary to add it as a subplot. It didn't add to the story exactly if anything it was distracting to the mystery. Thus the reason it goes into my "Cliche' Much" pile because it feels like a forced love triangle cliche.

Now, that said, I don to want to tell a writer how to write or an artist how to do their art. I'm very sure this was important in the initial concepts of the book, but to my reading perspective, I just felt like it was unnecessary dramatic tension that took the emphasis off the main plot, which was a murder mystery.

So now, let's go into what I loved about the story. The Mystery itself was AMAZING. We get to consider all sorts of plots and twists here, far more than the last time in my opinion, and all of them were good. The Red Herrings were terrific, and I enjoyed the aspect of the actual killer; I loved all of the elements that fed into it.

There is an exciting part involving a science fair was expertly written. I loved that anyone could go there with the idea. I also liked that Diabetes was mentioned and addressed so well in the story. I found all the science and scientific red hearings to be top notch. I found the forensic parts to be fun and exciting. I even found the motivations far better this time.

Overall, I had a happy and full mystery journal. This was great, fun to track, fun to read, and a lot of well thought out plot going on. I also was happy to see the Shakespeare was back, the detail work was back, and such excellent spot checking had returned.

I also wanted to say the character of Emma grew so well in this story as a person, triangle or not. She is such a lovely character. I love her accent; I love her sensibility; I even enjoy how her mind works. I think she'd be a super sleuth for any story she is in, and I'm looking forward to her return appearance.

Score

So with all of that in mind and my math going into effect "Poison by Punctuation" receives an 81/100 which is also a Four Star review on Goodreads and Amazon.

Again, the teacher in your life will love this. Your mystery fans should as well, and I think this may be the perfect sort of transition book for any general adult who loves a good story.

Until tomorrow my friends I want to thank you so much for reading my review!