Rhythm & Clues

I’ve been a fan of Odelia Grey since I picked up the first book in the series,  Too Big to Miss  . She’s not young and she’s not a size two and she doesn’t waste any time worrying about it. Crime Fiction isn’t exactly overrun with over-fifty heroines, and Odelia is a welcome change of pace.In this 11th series installment Odelia teams up with her mom and niece to find aging rocker Bo Shank, who has mysteriously disappeared. Odelia was a big fan of Bo’s back in the day, and her mother won’t give her a moment’s peace until Bo is found. This time around it’s not Odelia who stumbles across a dead body, but – as usual – it’s Odelia who solves the mystery.This story was a lot of fun. Some of the series regulars don’t have big roles in this storyline, but Odelia’s mom, Grace, is a great character and makes a clever sidekick. The mystery was laid out nicely and there’s a good balance of humor and suspense. Odelia’s sleuthing skills have certainly sharpened as this series has progressed – she’s clever and resourceful.One of the things that draws me to this series is the way the author has developed the character of Odelia and populated her world with lovable and relatable characters. I enjoy spending time with these people; there’s a lot of warmth and genuine affection here. In this book I got to catch up with Odelia & Company – I think of the mystery as just a “bonus”!Occasional swearing/strong language and adult situations (no explicit content). While this technically works as a standalone novel, book #11 is no place to jump into a series! Do yourself a favor and start from the beginning – you can thank me later;-) Too Big to Miss

This is the 11th book in the Odelia Grey Series and for me they just keep getting better. Ms. Jaffarian does a great job throughout the series of developing her characters and letting them evolve - sometimes evolving to where they are not in every book and may not be in future books because their lives have taken them in a direction away from the main character.We have several cameos of favorite characters - Steele is there and discussed but does not a play a very active roll and he is now married. Zee is there but she and Seth are flying out to be with their daughter as they are about to become grandparents. Dev is mentioned and hopefully will appear in future books but he too has moved on and is retired and in a relationship that has moved him out of California. Husband Greg is there but busy out of state with brother Clark and there is, perhaps, some foreshawdowing of book plots to come in Greg's and Clark's relationship with Willie that is outside of their combined relationship through Odelia which I am excited aboutWe have further growth and connection being achieved between Odelia and Grace as they are the two primary characters in this book, along with Clark's daughter, Lorraine, Grace's neighbor and best friend Art and a personal favorite of mine who appears when needed, Willie. The pace is fast, story is tight and it makes me look forward to future outings from these characters.I always feel you know you are reading a good book when you have to sit it down to go do something and you find your mind wandering back to the pages, wondering what the characters are doing now. I experience this every time I read one of Sue Ann Jaffarian's books. I enjoy the characters, I am happy to see them grow, change, move on even if it does mean losing them on the pages because I know they will reappear much the way friends do in real life.

Odelia has her band of love ones helping her figure out why a friend of her mother's is missing. Since her mother moved out to California she's been involved in her adventures. So Odelia helps out. Soon her niece is involved, dead bodies appear.What I miss with the Odelia series as they progress is that main characters are becoming secondary to her mother. We don't see her friends or law firm co workers as much or even at all. This story seemed to hem and haw a bit. First Odelia wasn't going to stay involved with the search but once Willie came to "check on her" she was gung ho to proceed. Steele and Odelia's friendship is one that I enjoy, their banter is somewhat of a comic relief. That was missing completely with the little interaction they had.As the story moved forward I became less interested in the plot as it seemed slow moving, the hemming and hawing was a bit much. As previous books in the series say, Odelia is magnet for dead bodies, and in this book it was not her who found the first one. I doubt I'll continue with any more Odelia books.

I have read every one of the Odelia Grey stories and as always, I enjoyed this one. I am always sorry when I reach the end. As usual, Odelia has her hands full with her feisty mother. I have dealt with several trying relatives of my own and it is always much funnier when it is in a book than it is in real life. I like her murder mysteries because they deal more with solving the mystery and avoid going into a lot of gory details. If you are a fan of Sue Grafton or Janet Evanovich, it is pretty certain that you will like the Odelia Grey stories. As always, I can't wait for the next one.

I have loved all the Odelia books. What a wonderful genuine character, but the problem is that now that I've read all 12 of them, we now need 12 more Odelia Grey books. I've read the Ghost books, and the Vampire books, and I like them ok, but absolutely nothing else she's written can come close to beating the Odelia Grey Mystery books, because they don't have Odelia. Please write 12 more Odelia Grey books in kindle.