Description (from cover):
‘Police sketch artist Rory McCain never needed a partner to create a likeness of a suspect. But now, working as a sleuth on the side, she’s got a partner who’s been dead for over a century…
When Rory’s favorite uncle dies suddenly, he bequeaths to his niece a beautiful Victorian home and a list of clients from his private detective business. As Rory tries to get settled in the house, she is startled by a ghost from the 1870’s–federal marshal Ezekiel Drummond, aka Zeke–who was helping Uncle Mac with his cases. In exchange, Mac had agreed to help Zeke find the killer who had shot the lawman in the back.
When Zeke proposes a similar partnership with Rory, she balks. Having a ghost as a housemate is bad enough. But as she’s drawn into one of her uncle’s unsolved cases, Rory finds she needs the help of an experienced investigator–even one who is stubborn and old-fashioned, cantankerous and sexist–not to mention long dead. Faced with a cold-blooded killer, Rory may even need the marshal’s ghostly help in staying alive herself…’
My thoughts:
I had high hopes for this one. It has a ghost as main character, a independent female protagonist and it’s a cozy mystery. However, for some reason, this one just fell flat. It’s another book to add to the ‘disappointing debut’ category. Maybe it’s because I read a lot of cozy mysteries, that I have abnormally high standards for my reads. But one thing I cannot stand, across the board, is figuring out the murderer fairly quickly and that is most definitely what happened with this one. I think with mystery books, this is the most irritating thing for me. I do not enjoy books that are easily figured out. I cannot tell you how much this makes a book less interesting for me. I want to be in suspense until the last page and have to use my brain to figure out a mystery, not have it given to me on a platter.
Sometimes I feel like I am preaching to the choir with this issue. It seems like this has been a reoccurring problem with the books I have read this year. If this is the way that cozy mysteries are going, then I might just have to find some other genre to read. The plot and the characters weren’t all that bad and of course I love the paranormal element with the added ghost. The writing wasn’t appalling and was easy to understand and comprehend. There were some times where things happened a little fast and some details were left out and then talked about later that I found a little confusing.
Overall, not the worst cozy mystery debut, but most definitely on my list of the top ten least liked debuts. Of course, I will give the series another shot by reading the next installment in the series, but if that one is anything like this one, I will call it quits on the series. I know some people really like this series, but I’m thinking perhaps this isn’t the one for me. I am reading the second one in the series now, so make sure you come back to see if the author redeems herself and the series or if it becomes a series I abandoned.
Overall Rating: 1.5
Title: Sketch Me If You Can
Author: Susan Pape
Series: Portrait of Crime Mystery #1
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: August 3, 2010
Pages: 304
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the author in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
Girl Lost In a Book 
Isn't it something how be can have such different reactions to books? I didn't LOVE this book, but I did enjoy it. But then, figuring out who the murderer is early doesn't bother me so much. Anyway, you sound how I feel about Rebecca Hale's Cats and Curios Mystery series. So many other's loved it, and it just bugged me. I gave up after book 3.
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