Friday, October 26, 2012

POPPED OFF (Stay At Home Dad Mysteries #2) by Jeffrey Allen



POPPED OFF (Stay At Home Dad Mysteries #2) by Jeffrey Allen

Paperback, 281 pages
Published September 4th 2012 by Kensington
Genre: cozy mystery novel 
Rating: 4.5 stars

"As usual, I was the only male in the room, the rest of the waiting parents being moms who were either just coming or on the way to spinning class or a tennis match or whatever else the moms of Rose Petal did during the day. I was an anomaly in Rose Petal - a father who stayed at home - and was regularly viewed with a raised eyebrow whenever I ventured somewhere new during a time of the day when most other dads were at a desk."

The uneventful life of a happy and proud "full-time dad" turned into a much more exciting deal when in book #1 (Stay At Home Dead) Deuce Winter decided to become a part-time detective. In this hilarious new installment of the Stay At Home Dad Mysteries series, the small Texas town Rose Petal has to deal with the disappearance of the president of the local youth soccer league and the theft of all its funds.  With the help of his quirky and unlikely business partner, Deuce will solve the mystery  and restore the order in the palsy-walsy community of Rose Petal, while successfully juggling his jobs as a full-time caring parent of a four year old girl, household manager, and loving husband of a high-profile attorney. 
This was a down-right funny read and a very good combination of clever mystery plot and hilarious situations, frothing with lough-out-loud dialogues, quirky characters (how to forget Deuce's dad ranting over Facebook, the midgety business partner Victor, or the air-headed but ruthless girls from the college sorority group) and, surprisingly, even with some very tender and romantic moments, the more so intriguing because written from a male's point of view. I am really starting to appreciate the comedic relief of the cozy mystery genre and I strongly believe that the ability of injecting spot-on humor in every compartment of a story (plotting, characterization, dialogues) takes natural talent as well as a considerable amount of writing skills. Therefore I wholeheartedly recommend The Stay At Home Dad Mysteries series. Pick it up from the prequel (Stay At Home Dead, book #1) and keep an eye on the upcoming third installment Father Knows Death, book #3


About the author
Jeffrey Allen is the alter-ego of national best selling mystery writer Jeff Shelby. He is a recovering stay at home dad who now teaches high school English and coaches basketball. A graduate of the University of California, Irvine, he currently lives with his daughter in the suburbs of Dallas, TX. To know more about this author, visit his website http://jeffshelby.com/
 

*Review based on a complimentary copy graciously offered by the publisher in return of an unbiased opinion




2 comments:

  1. Mina your work deals exquisitely in matters temporal, which fortifies the heart and strengthens the soul to bear the unbearable, unveil the truth and reveal what it is to be human; and experience the conditions and complexities we call living life; written in floridly lucid language that stimulates as much as it soothes. Your commentaries, reviews and recommendations are as compassionate and they are compelling.

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  2. David, thank you for your beautiful comment! Reading, reviewing, and blogging are a very gratifying experience for me...your words of appreciation make this experience even more rewarding :))

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