FOUL PLAY AT THE PTA by Laura Alden

Publisher:    Berkley

Published:    July 5, 2011

ISBN:      978-0451234087

Genre:    Cozy Mystery

Format:  Print

Obtained via:  Publisher

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Gina@loveromancesandmorereviews.com

FOUR HEARTS

Beth Kennedy has her hands full raising her two children more or less alone, running her children’s book store and activities with the PTA.  Some days running the book store can be a bit trying when one of her employees takes off at the last minute.  When it happens yet again it is on a PTA meeting day.  After successfully moving this all important meeting to another date Beth has a moment to feel all is under control.  Not only was Beth able to put through a project near and dear to her, everything else seems to be moving along fairly smoothly. 

That is, until, she and her fellow PTA member, Erica find a third member dead in his truck.  Not only is Sam dead…the evidence is pretty clear, he’s been murdered.  What is so puzzling is that Sam was well liked by everyone.  There wasn’t a person who didn’t call him friend. 

On the heels of Sam’s death Beth decides that it is long past time she deal with her flaky employee, Marcia.  When Marcia demands vacation through the holiday rush Beth tells her it is time for her to go—permanently.  Short one very much needed employee Beth is delighted to hire Yvonne.  But Yvonne comes with a history—a history that includes being accused of killing someone in very much the same way Sam was killed.  Has Beth just hired herself a killer?

I wasn’t too impressed with book 1 of Laura Alden’s PTA series, MURDER AT THE PTA, but thought I’d give book 2, FOUL PLAY AT THE PTA a shot (pardon the pun).  I’m glad I did.  I got the sense Alden found her voice and delivered a much better read.  The characters were a bit tighter and more fleshed out.  The mystery was well done—who would kill a well-liked guy?  I particularly liked the strength we start to see in Beth.  In book 1 she was more or less a pushover.  In FOUL PLAY AT THE PTA she stands up to her ex as well as taking things in hand where Marcia is concerned.  I like the progression with her beau, Evan.  The romance isn’t a big part of the story, but adds some nice dimension to it.

Each book in this series is a standalone and Alden gives readers enough back story that they do not have to be read in order.

This is an objective review and an endorsement of this book.

MURDER AT THE PTA by Laura Alden

Publisher:  Berkley
Date published:   October 5, 2010
ISBN 978-0451231093
Genre:   Cozy Mystery
Format:  Paperback
Obtained via:  Publisher
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Gina@loveromancesandmorereviews.com

2 Hearts

Divorced from her husband about a year Beth Kennedy has a pretty full plate to deal with.  Aside from two younger children she is the owner of a children’s book store that keeps her on the go.  Just when she thinks life might be settling down to a dull roar she’s “volunteered” as the PTA secretary.  Not one to shirk a responsibility, even one she doesn’t particularly want, Beth digs in.  She studies up on the issues, makes sure the minutes are prepared in a timely manner and graciously accepts those other duties as assigned that seem to go with volunteering.  The PTA, however, ends up in quite the uproar when non-too-popular school principal Agnes Mephisto announces an extension if going to be built on to the school.  Before anyone can react the town becomes aware of the fact that Agnes has not only received this marvellous, large, donation, or that an architect has been hired but that construction has already been begun.  On top of that a new blog shows up on the local internet and it’s a tell all of quite a number of town residents.  As if that isn’t enough, Agnes turns up dead…murdered.

When Beth is corralled by the PTA into contacting Agnes’ family to express their condolences Beth is handed yet another task when the deceased’s sister asks her to clean up her house.  When Beth heads over she, along with her friend Marina who is there to help, can’t help themselves and end up doing a little more than cleaning…they determine that maybe they need to see what they can find relating to Agnes’ murder.  Will they find the killer before the killer finds them?

I was drawn to the premise of Laura Alden’s MURDER AT THE PTA because the town reminded me a little of the one I grew up in.  Folks stepped up and pitched in, took on volunteer jobs and made the right things happen.  We even had a whole new school built while I was growing up—not all that different from that in the book.  I also liked the idea of the bookstore in town and while it was labelled a children’s book store, it seemed Beth carried quite a vast array of genres and titles—my kind of store!

The story started off pretty good and then seemed to head downhill.  I expected Beth to have children because, after all, the focus is on the PTA and you can’t be a parent in the PTA if you don’t have kids, right?  But the story bogged down several times with threads about the children.  Those portions didn’t move the story along and instead pulled me out of the mystery. 

Evan seemed to be thrown in because cozies these days seem to have to have a romantic interest.  The relationship—or rather their eating out on a regular basis, didn’t seem to have any purpose except there has to be a relationship.  There was also the requisite Christian-type religious scenes.

No one stuck out as a good possible suspect and I wasn’t sure why Beth felt she had to investigate.  There was the requisite line about letting the police do their work but she wasn’t really investigating Agnes’ death. 

And Agnes…well she started out as the usual cozy victim that no one was going to miss—but when her history was revealed her death was actually very sad.  I’m not sure what the author was thinking of or if maybe she started the book, put it down for a time and then went back to it without reviewing what she’d written early on.  I just wasn’t impressed.

That said, if you like cozies and in particular if you have school aged children, it’s a good bet for your reading enjoyment.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement this book.