No Good Deed Left Undone by Ginny Fite : A Review

BOOK TITLE: No Good Deed Left Undone

AUTHOR: Ginny Fite

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1626945210

GENRE: Mystery / Thriller

NUMBER OF PAGES: 267

FORMAT: Digital

SERIES / STANDALONE: Sam Lagarde Mysteries (Book 2

HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: I thank Laura Fabiani of iRead Book Tours for this review copy

SUMMARY:

“He had an itchy feeling, something he had seen that his memory had recorded but that he wasn’t paying attention to…”

When a man has everything, he can afford to be generous. Lawyer, philanderer, and horseman Grant Wodehouse is generous to a fault—until he’s stabbed to death with a pitchfork in his barn. The killer could be anyone—his lover’s husband, his troubled son, the homeless guy he lets sleep in his barn, his unscrupulous partner or even his wife.

Methodical Detective Sam Lagarde doesn’t miss a clue as he questions an ever-growing list of suspects, only to discover the killer has been hiding in plain sight the entire time. Always one step behind the killer, finally Lagarde’s only recourse is one he never wanted to take.

FIRST IMPRESSION:

The first line of the summary completely floored me. The first line resonated with me and I loved the short and succinct summary. It created just the right amount of interest and was enough to set the tone of the story. The cover itself was simple and elegant. I read more into the misty scene, but it fit with the theme of the story so well.

REVIEW:

There are two types of murder mysteries

Those where the killer is either revealed at first and the book is about the chase to catch him before he kills many people.

Those where the killer is hidden, even if in plain sight, and the race is about finding out the person responsible for murders.

In both these types of mysteries, the suspense is broken only at the last, keeping the reader guessing and trying to fit in the pieces of the jigsaw together. No Good Deed Left Undone keeps the guessing game alive and manages to hold my interest completely including those parts that were gory and vividly descriptive. Detective Sam Lagarde is called on to investigate the death of Grant Wodehouse, who seems to lead a life with no problems until someone actually stabs him with a pitchfork. The more Sam Lagarde tries to eliminate the suspects one by one, the larger the list keeps growing. But all this while, the killer is hidden in plain sight, testing the resolve of the reader to turn back to the last few pages to know the secret.

I liked the procedural way Sam and Lawrence follow the case in, and it showed me yet again why I am partical to police procedure thrillers. The author has written it well and has managed to give enough details to keep the interest alive, but not sound like a protocol announcement manual. Carefully isolating suspects and identifying clues, Sam leaves no stone unturned and the methodical way he approaches the whole thing is excellent. There is no clue in the summary but the story is set in rural America and the author has done justice to the settings. I really loved the writing which is a major positive point for the book.

The book is the perfect example of how even an excess of motives and suspects can ruin the case and make finding the real culprit harder. If the lack of suspects or motives stalls the case, an excess of it confuses the case and delays the solution. Trying to match the suspects and clues up and managing to do it to the readers' interest is a really great thing to do. It takes a little time to get used to the characters and understand if the really less amount of descriptions are a matter of choice or if they have already been described in book one. But other than that, the book will work even as a standalone and fans of the detective are sure to enjoy it.

VERDICT:

Brilliantly plotted thriller with smooth writing.

RATING: 4/5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ginny Fite is an award-winning journalist who has covered crime, politics, government, healthcare, art and all things human. She's been a spokesperson for a governor and a member of Congress, a few colleges and universities, and a robotics R&D company. She earned degrees from Rutgers University and Johns Hopkins University and studied at the School for Women Healers and the Maryland Poetry Therapy Institute. No Good Deed, published by Black Opal Books in 2015, is her second Sam Lagarde mystery/thriller set in Charles Town, West Virginia.

EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Kindle, Paperback

PRICE $3.91 for Kindle, $13.99 for Paperback

BOOK LINKS: Amazon