Reviewing Much Ado About Nauticaling
Much Ado About Nauticaling is the debut cozy mystery novel of the Whit and Whiskers series and it centres on Whitney who has recently moved back to her birthplace of Santa Catalina Island. While helping out with the family’s business of hosting tours with a glass bottom boat, she sees a dead body under the boat when the tour is over.
This one was a bit difficult for me to get through. I felt the characters and their relationships weren’t developed enough to draw me in and keep me engaged. The murder mystery itself would have been more enjoyable if I was able to connect with the characters, which in this case, I was not able to.
It was also marketed as a rom-cozy and I was really excited to discover this new sub-genre, but I only found the same amount of romance in this one as there is in most cozy mysteries.
While it took me a while to get through this story, I think I will like to give the second upcoming book a try as sometimes the writing improves the further the series evolves.
Thank you to Kensington for the advanced reading copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Much Ado About Nauticaling releases tomorrow!
Book Description
After far too many years in the Los Angeles corporate world, Whitney Dagner has come home to Santa Catalina Island off the California coast to help her brother Nick run Nautically Yours, the family tourism business. Between gift shop shifts selling all manner of T-shirts and tchotchkes and keeping her feline Whiskers in fine fettle, she pilots the Sea Bounder, a glass bottom boat showing tourists the underwater sights of aquatic plants, marine life--and a murder victim?
The self-proclaimed Master of the Island, Jules Tisdale was a wealthy man with business interests throughout Catalina who was about to be honored as Person of the Year before someone strangled him with his own tie and tossed his body into the water. That someone appears to be Nick, who had a raw deal from Jules and no alibi the night of his murder. To clear her brother's name, Whit will have to investigate Jules' shady associates and not exactly grief-stricken family members--with the unwelcome help of Felix Ramirez, police diver and Whit's ex-boyfriend who's looking to rekindle their relationship.