Title: Mother's Day Out
Author: Karen MacInerney
Series: #1 in the Margie Peterson Mysteries series
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Brilliance Audio (April 15, 2014) (first published June 2,2012)
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating: ☕☕☕☕
Synopsis: Margie Peterson is a typical stay-at-home mom until she trades dishes for detective work to become Austin's least-likely PI. Soon she's knee-deep in cheating husbands, transvestites, and trouble in a laugh-out-loud new mystery from award-winning author Karen MacInerney.
With a husband who works long hours trying to make partner and two rambunctious kids that are running her ragged, Margie Peterson is like any other worn-out suburban mom. When she decides to take a job as a PI for a seedy local detective agency, everything changes. It doesn't take long for Margie to get in over her head: Her first day on the job she totals her minivan, mistakenly enters a drag contest, and winds up in the bathroom with a dead transvestite. But when Margie finds her home number in the victim's phone, things really start to get interesting.
My Thoughts: I found this book while looking for a cozy mystery featuring a PI to fit in a Bingo Game I'm playing over at GoodReads. It was a good find.
The Good, The Bad, And The Stuff in the Middle: I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book after realizing the LGBTQ community was going to be a hot topic within it. The last cozy mystery I read that mentioned the Gay community had homophobic undertones that pissed me off to the extreme and I will not read another book by that author. I was prepared to hate this book even though I read another MacInerney (in a different series) a few months ago and liked it a lot. I was pleasantly surprised to find our main character, not an expert on the Drag Queen community, but open minded and willing to listen without judgement.
I did find Margie a bit TSTL (which is a common trait in the genre) but I do have faith she will make a good PI. I'm hoping the fact that she is running around claiming to be a PI after working for a PI company for only 2 weeks and has no license will get rectified. You just can't be a PI without a license.
Most of the secondary characters were specifically drawn to either have the reader like them or hate them. I did like that Margie's husband, Blake, was a bit more complex. Sure, through most of the book I didn't like him. I wasn't supposed to. He comes from uppity stock and I was wondering how in the world they ever got together as he was all about status and appearance. Towards the end I almost liked him and even felt sorry for him.
I'm really interested in seeing what happens in the future for Margie and Blake.
I listened to the audio recording and thought Cris Dukehart was a good Margie. Her voices weren't super distinctive but I was able to listen to the book at my usual speed of almost 2Xs. Her voice for Margie's friend Becky did get a bit chipmunky though. If she had been the main character I may have had to adjust the speed to a little slower.
In a Nutshell: I'm looking forward to getting to read more in the series and with my Kindle Unlimited I'll be able to listen or read. I love that option.
