[amazon_link id=”0983735042″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : Rally Around the Corpse
Author : Hy Conrad
Genre : Mystery
Pages : 348
Publisher : Seven Realms Publishing
Source : Author/Virtual Author Book Tours
Rating : 3.5/5

Amy Abel and her tenacious mother Fanny, owners of Abel adventures, run a mystery tour, a travel tour with a difference. Guests sign up to tour different places in search of clues to solve a concocted mystery. Amy has contracted with Otto Ingo to create a mystery with clues and details for the guests of her “Monte Carlo to Rome Mystery Road Rally”. However Otto is murdered, and Amy discovers that the “concocted mystery” may actually be based on a real unsolved murder. Moreover, people involved with the real murder incident are actually on Amy’s mystery tour! As if that were not enough, things really heat up when a tour guest dies mysteriously, and another guest is arrested for the murder by the Italian police.

Amy nodded, “And so, what do we have? Three unsolved murders, all connected by a single thread. You. The cops love this. They call it circumstantial evidence. It’s how they build a case.”

“I didn’t kill anyone.”

“And I believe you. I do. Being a liar doesn’t automatically make you a killer. Not every single time.”

This mystery is told in two parts – sort of. The first describes the road rally/mystery tour starting in Monte Carlo and going all the way to Rome, with the guest list and the initial setup of the mystery – this ends with the murder of a tour guest. The second is about Amy’s efforts (with the help of other sympathetic tour guests) to find the real killer, after the mystery tour has officially ended.

Mysteries are a favorite genre, so when “Rally around the Corpse” was offered for a book tour review, I elected to read it with eagerness. I’m glad I did, because this book is an interesting read. The characters, and there are quite a few, are developed well. I especially liked Amy’s character – she appears to be poised and pragmatic, although a little less forceful than she would wish to be. Her mother compensates for her lack of will, by being pushy and tenacious, and going fearlessly where others fear to tread.

“Mrs Crenshaw” Amy smiled. “How is she?”

“The same. People like her don’t change until they die.” Fanny inhaled, creating a new half-inch of ash, then exhaled a ribbon of smoke. “She asked if you were seriously dating. I would have mentioned Marcus just to shut her up, but I don’t know that much about him.”

“Good.”

“So I told her you were confused.”

Marcus Alvarez, a tour guest to whom Amy is attracted is an unknown quantity; Amy can never really be sure about him or his dubious motives. The rest of the tour guests are a varied lot, from the moneyed heiress Georgina Davis to retired old judge Burt Baker to the Mrozeks – a family of four, featuring a whining, carping mother figure.

The mystery develops well with the interconnections between the real-life mystery and the made-up one coming to light only gradually. The book flowed smoothly for the most part, although there were some places where I thought the narrative a little abrupt. Conrad weaves in descriptions nicely, giving his characters heft and believability. Amy is a bankable heroine and very easy to root for – I look forward to seeing her in other books of the series.

Overall, a quick and easy read, and one to pick up if you are into cozy mysteries.