Book Review: Competition Can Be Murder

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Competition Can Be Murder     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Connie Shelton
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Amateur Sleuth   Woman Main Character
Series: Charlie Parker # 8
Intrigue, April 2004, $24.95, 292 pp.

Married couple Charlie Parker and Drake Langston leaves sunny New Mexico for the mist and fog of Scotland to help get their friend Brian Swinney out of trouble. Britt won the lucrative contract transporting goods and people on his helicopters to the oil rigs but his is essentially a one man operation and he has to leave to see his very ill father in the hospital. Charlie and Drake will take over the contract and rent a cottage on the Wealthy Dunworthy estate.

When Charlie arrives at the castle for tea, she mentions that she is a private investigator back home and host Robert Dunbar wants to hire Charlie to find his two missing lambs that he thinks his neighbor stole. When their grandson Richie is kidnapped and held for ransom, The Dunbars beg Charlie to rescue their grandson. While working that case she and Drake are met with hostilities by the men on the oil rig who want the contract to be given to the boat transports which are also union members. The situation threatens to escalate into violence.

The two protagonists are fierce individualists who go their own way and don’t let anyone tell them what they can or cannot do, but the way they need each other is a beautiful sight to behold and somewhat softens their desire for total independence. Between the kidnapping case and the situation with the boat owners and the oil workers who want the flying contract canceled, Charlie and Drake have all they can do to stay alive. There’s a lot of action in this exciting crime thriller and Connie Shelton gets better with every book she writes.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner