Book Review – “Red Tape” by Michele Lynn Seigfried

Title:  Red Tape

Author:  Michele Lynn Seigfried

Synopsis (from Amazon.com):

In this captivating tale of crime, government corruption and mystery, Municipal Clerk Chelsey Alton gets more than she bargained for when she encounters an irate resident and loose cannon, Robert Triggers. Triggers has been harassing the employees in the small, Jersey shore town where she works and he becomes the prime suspect when multiple attempts to sabotage the municipal building are made. Chelsey begins to piece it all together and finds herself framed for a crime she did not commit. She narrowly escapes several attempts at her demise, only to find herself in a much more precarious situation. Will she make it out alive or end up a tragic victim at the hands of a madman?

My thoughts:  I am happy to be providing a review for this book for the book tour sponsored by Cozy Mystery Book Tours.

I must say that I really enjoyed this book.  First of all as a frequent reader of cozy mysteries, I found the premise of having the main character be a Municipal Town Clerk rather interesting.  Believe me, I know very little if anything about city government and definitely learned a lot of it in this mystery.

I found the main characters and the secondary characters likeable, charming, and always a good sign is that I want to know more about them!!!  (Hint, hint, when is book 2 coming out? 🙂

The plot keeps moving right along as you learn more about the lives of the characters and the life within this small Jersey town.

The only thing that I found a bit jarring as a reader, and perhaps this is because it is a first time author, is some awkwardness in transitions between chapters and transitions in time.  What I mean by this is I found myself happily reading along and all of a sudden we were in a different time or a couple days ahead of where we just were.  The way in which these transitions were handled simply lacked a bit of fluidity to make it less jarring on the reader.

I look forward to learning more about these characters.  I am hopeful there will be future books in this series.

And remember,

Books Are Life,

Heather