Blood and Groom by Jill Edmondson

Y'all know I like a good mystery, but I have to say perhaps my least favourite type of mystery is the Private Eye genre. I will eat up a police procedural, or a little-old-lady-investigates, or a "consulting detective" like Sherlock Holmes or Poirot, but some person with a dingy office and an ad in the paper investigating a murder for a mysterious stranger who has something to hide...for some reason, I just can't get into them.

I do try though, and I wanted to give this novel a fair shake, but the opening paragraph involves the protagonist describing another woman as a "Manolo-shod Chihuahua" which really left a bad taste in my mouth. There is a lot of femininity-policing happening in this book. And racism, too; there is a scene in which the main character encounters a Hispanic janitor and wishes she had tequila to bribe him with instead of wine; later she refers to him as "El Janitoro" - classy.

The plot is thus: Sasha Jackson, our protagonist, is a "rocker chick" (I will be happy to never read that phrase again) turned P.I. who usually looks into boring P.I. stuff, but an uptight socialite comes to her to ask that Jackson clear her name in the murder of her ex-fiancee. The socialite, Christine, has not been charged with Gordon's murder, but all their friends think she did it, and she wants to prove them wrong. So Sasha investigates, and of course uncovers all kinds of sketchy things about Christine and her friends in the process.

Honestly the writing is good and I would probably read more from this author, just nothing in this particular series, as it was Sasha who really annoyed me. Not just her inner monologue/narration, but the stupid choices she makes. There's a point where she figures out a connection between the murder and some other murders - a fairly solid connection that points her straight to the murderer - and she doesn't go to the police. In fact, even when she does discover who she believes the murderer is, instead of going to the police, she breaks into that person's office.  I'm like, lady, once you go to the cops with this fairly clear theory, they can investigate and find evidence the old-fashioned way.

I also had a hard time with the wishy-washy (and ultimately unresolved) romantic tension, first between Sasha and Ted, one of the suspects, and later between Sasha and Mick, her ex-boyfriend. I guess it's hard to root for someone who you don't really care about. And that's the thing, I didn't really care about Sasha - and I think that is essential for enjoying the P.I. genre. Aside from being set in Toronto, there was nothing that really set this mystery apart, so not liking the protagonist really hampered my enjoyment of the book.

That said, it was well-written and there is potential. I would try this author again.

Two CN Towers out of five.