Another great Nichelle mystery. Asked to do a favor for a friend, she looks into a high profile sports stars son's apparent suicide. Exploring a small close knit town with closed mouth people getting her story is problematic. Trusting her gut she investigates and gets more than she bargained for with too many suspects and toxicology reports that are taking forever. Also spending some time with Joey and exploring their friendship more and Kyle popping up to make her dating choices harder. ( )

Small Town Spin by LynDee Walker is a great read, involving a serious subject. Through Nichelle's respectful reporting and interviews of the grieving parents, Walker handles the sensitive subject of teen suicide well.

Richmond Telegraph investigative reporter Nichelle Clarke is asked by the Telegraph's sports columnist, Grant Parker, to cover the apparent suicide of the son of his friend (a star quarterback). Nichelle uncovers the truth about the death, plus other deaths that follow, and makes some enemies along the way. Interesting subplots include the mystery of the moonshine operation, and a girly bar that is causing quite a commotion in certain circles.

LynDee Walker's journalist background is obvious in the details she includes, about such things as the newsroom, the daily conferences with the editor and the reporters, and doing interviews. These details make this series unique, and are part of why I love all the Headlines in High Heels Mysteries. Book four in the series, Devil in the Deadline, will be out January 6, 2015, and I can't wait!

LynDee has a winning way with words, also. To illustrate, here are some of my favorite quotes from Small Town Spin:

• Spring always puts me in the mood for new shoes. To be fair, so do summer, fall, and Wednesday.

• I dialed Joey's number on my Blackberry....
"You feeling any better?"
Good Lord. Just Joey's voice on the phone made my toes tingle. Part of me was afraid of his questionable occupation. Another part was just downright chicken of falling so hard for a guy it could never work with. Yet I couldn't stay away from him. Oy.

• "...You bet I will, ma'am." He tipped his Mathews Eagles baseball cap.
Ma'am. I vowed to stop on the way home for new eye cream.

• He could stay mad 'til I left my house in garden clogs for all I cared.

I highly recommend Small Town Spin, which has earned our Five-Kitty seal of approval!

(Originally published at Jane Reads)

Note: The publisher provided a complimentary review copy of this book to me, in exchange for an honest review. ( )

This is what a cozy mystery should be. It's fun but not fluffy. Entertaining but not shallow. Touching but not melodramatic.

I'll start with a series summary: Nichelle Clarke is a journalist for the Richmond, VA newspaper, covering the crimes and courthouse beat, giving her ample, believable opportunities to find herself up to her eyeballs in mystery. She's smart, likeable, a bit cheeky and has integrity to spare, but doesn't hesitate to give as good as she gets. She has great sources who like her and a couple that like her just a little bit more than the rest, including one ex-boyfriend and one sinfully beautiful man that seems to be in the business of sin, in a Goodfella kind of way.

Small Town Spin centres on the story of a former Superbowl champion whose son is found dead from an apparent suicide. While not normally her bailiwick, close friend and sports columnist, Parker - whose also a close friend of the bereaved father - asks her to be the first to break the story, in hopes of setting the tone for the media storm that will break when the death is made public. She soon finds holes in the sheriff's suicide theory; it could be, but it doesn't make sense. Another teen death soon follows, this one with a note the parents swear is fake. Nichelle discovers that the police found moonshine at the scene of both deaths, and she's just not going to let this go.

Obviously, teen suicide is a big topic in this book - if this is a hot button topic for you, tread carefully. My peripheral experience with suicide was as an adult, but I thought the author did an excellent job balancing respect for the tragedy that is suicide of any kind, and a cozy tone that kept the story enjoyable and not at all heavy. There's nothing here that made me feel like my feelings were being played; the story was written, I thought, with sincerity and a skilful hand.

I love Nichelle; I'd jump at the chance to call someone like her a friend any day. I like Parker, who plays a part in every mystery in this series - he's cheeky and charismatic without being slimy. I dislike Shelby and think she's a bit over-the-top hateful, but I've resigned myself to at least one hateful character in every cozy series. Nichelle acquires another one in this book, Spencer, and someone needs to hit him a good one. But at least in these books, Nichelle doesn't just take it - she dishes it right back out to both of them and I find myself cheering her on each and every time she puts them in their places.

So, the romantic angle. I'm conflicted and it's where that half star went. I hate love triangles. HATE THEM. But Ms. Walker introduced two men from the very first book. Kyle, the ex-boyfriend/ATF agent, and Joey, the Italian-by-way-of-New-Jersey uh...businessman. Who drives a black Lincoln. Really, I think all the stereotypes are ticked here, except that he's beautiful and of the refined, luxe variety of goodfella. Anyway, by the end of the first book, I thought she could make this work in the same way Janet Evanovich makes it work - Nichelle doesn't have to choose. One is unsuitable anyway.

But in Small Town Spin she's angst-y and feeling guilty and conflicted and now I'm starting to feel angst about the love triangle. I like Kyle and I like Joey and I don't want her to have to choose. It's the 21st century, Nichelle is her own woman, and for the purposes of this series I don't see why she can't have both. In a safe and ethical manner, of course.

The mystery. The mystery was excellent and so well plotted. Really, deliciously convoluted with blind alleys, dead ends (those two might be the same thing), lots of suspects. There is moonshine. Hootch. White Lightning. How cool is that? I don't think I've ever read a cozy that involves moonshine, and I've read a boatload of cozies. I'm not sure about the murder method; it doesn't jibe with what I know about the subject, but I'm willing to concede I'm not an expert.

Do teenagers get Type 2 diabetes? I don't mean the obese teens, the guy here is an athlete and seems to have been born with it. I thought it was only Type 1/insulin dependence that one could be genetically born with and develop as a child. Dunno.

Very little was predictable about this mystery and what little I was able to see coming ended up coming from totally different directions. I was confronted with the murderer the same time Nichelle was. That's always a good thing in a murder mystery.

This series is rapidly becoming a top 10 favorite and I am looking forward to the next book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Henery Press in exchange for an honest review, but I'm purchasing a hard copy of this book for my shelves because it's one I'll be reading again. ( )

This is the first book I've read, but the 3rd in the series. They can easily be read as stand alone, and I didn't feel like I was missing information or back story at all.

A very good mystery book. Lots of action and mystery, not a ton of fluff. Easy to read, very well written and kept me engaged to the last page. Highly recommended. ( )

This is the first book I've read, but the 3rd in the series. They can easily be read as stand alone, and I didn't feel like I was missing information or back story at all.

A very good mystery book. Lots of action and mystery, not a ton of fluff. Easy to read, very well written and kept me engaged to the last page. Highly recommended. ( )