Book Review/Tour: Rally 'Round the Corpse by Hy Conrad

Title: Rally 'Round the Corpse: An Abel Adventure Mystery
Author: Hy Conrad
Published May 29, 2012; Seven Realms Publishing

Publisher's description: Amy Abel needs to start over and decides to sink all her savings into a travel agency specializing in adventure. Her first project is a mystery road rally through Europe. At the starting line in Monte Carlo, Amy finds herself attracted to Marcus Alvarez, the most mysterious of her two dozen game-loving clients. But the rally gets off to a rocky start when an eccentric writer, Otto, the only person who knows the game's solution, is himself murdered back in New York.

Who would kill a harmless mystery geek, and why are weird accidents beginning to happen along the way? To her horror, Amy discovers that this fictional mystery was based on a real, unsolved case, one that Marcus knows too much about. Now she has no choice but to join forces with Fanny, her domineering mother, and solve this on her own, before the killer strikes again.

Comments: A combination of mystery and romance, the book is in two sections. The first part is on the road with Amy and her clients, with clues to solve a fictional murder mystery while they travel around Europe. The situation becomes real, however, when one of the clients is indeed murdered. The second section of the book is back home in New York, where several from the group decide to continue tracking down clues to find the murderer. The book slowed down a bit in the middle of this section but picked up again at the end, when things rapidly came to a head and suspicion shifts from one person to another.

Overall, a fun mystery novel - a road trip with clients not only sightseeing but also searching for clues that take them toward a final end and a solution. Things don't go as planned because of the real life murder that throws the game from play to reality.

Hy Conrad is also author of the nonfiction humorous book, Things Your Dog Doesn't Want You to Know. He is best known for his work as a writer/producer of the ground-breaking series, Monk. He spends his time between Key West, Vermont, and New York City.  His website: www.hyconrad.com

Thanks to TeddyRose at Premiere Virtual Author Book Tours and the author/publisher for a review copy of this book.

Submitted to Cym Lowell's Book Review Wednesdays.