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Amanda and Thorn Team-Up

Author: Connie Feddersen

Amanda is finally ready to ditch her Toyota and get a proper country pickup truck to navigate the pitted roads to and from clients. A trip to Frank Lemon’s used car lot leads her to fall in love with the proprietor’s big red pickup, and she strikes a deal. But before Amanda can collect her new truck, Frank Lemon is found dead in the driver’s seat – and Thorn was the one whose high-speed chase led to Frank’s demise.

Now suspended, Thorn has changed his mind about Amanda’s amateur sleuthing skills, and with the wedding merely two weeks away, the two team up to find out what really happened to Frank. It might look like an accident, by Amanda knows it’s murder and for once, Thorn is ready to believe her. Besides, Thorn needs Amanda to clear his name and get his job reinstated.

With time running out, and more visits to the beauty salon for gossip and disastrous pre-wedding hair styles, tension is running high, and the happy couple are arguing. Could this case spell the end of their nuptial bliss? The County Commissioner certainly hopes so and is slowly moving in on Amanda.

Image by Courtney from Pixabay

Despite the laughable (read corny) addition of Lemon’s used car lots and Frank’s wife (Ima Lemon), the continual battle of beauty at Velma’s horrid salon, and Thorn’s and Amanda’s truly teenage arguments and misunderstandings, Dead in the Driver’s Seat is a delightfully fun mystery read. I was thoroughly into the drama of Thorn’s and Amanda’s on-again and off-again romance and the delicious scandal at Frank Lemon’s used lot. Plus, the love triangle angle and disapproving families coming together just heightened the toxic bliss of Amanda’s steamy relationship.

As per usual, everyone has reason and motive for helping the deceased meet his maker. The investigation (amateur as it is – Amanda still goes up to people and flat out asks them if they engaged in murder most foul) has plenty of risks, plenty of enraged suspects, and lots of not so nice activities to hide. Thorn himself has a nemesis – the erratic and ambitious Deputy Paine.

The particular murder this time is quite clever, and the usual hokey elements of the series are just as enjoyable (and annoying) as always. We get a pretty good criminal capture sequence here, and the perfect ending. Personally, this is one of my favorite Amanda adventures so far. Highly recommended. On to the next in the series!

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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