BOOK REVIEW: Butterfly

A typical vacation for the two of us is that one of us fishes and the other reads for two weeks. Usually I take favorite, light authors and veg-out until the fisherman comes back and then we go out to eat. This is the perfect arrangement for both of us.

Sharon Sala is one of my reliable authors. She is always good and sometimes she is outstanding. Usually her crime novels have an unexpected twist; but BUTTERFLY was too easy to solve almost from the beginning.

China Brown has just been abandoned by the father of her unborn child. She finds herself penniless and out on the street. Wandering through a seedy part of town she is shot after witnessing a murder. Her baby has been killed and she is barely alive. As the only one to have seen the murder, her life is still in jeopardy.

The murder victim had been a photographer known to go after pictures with a high scandal value and he had been after the biggest photo of his career. Of course, it is discovered that his photographs have been a source of blackmail money for him and that opens up an interesting group of suspects. Now the police have to keep China alive and sort through the blackmail victims for the murder.

As usual, Sala develops characters who catch the reader’s attention: although, in this case, most of them become slightly stereotypical. My biggest problem was that I was so sure that I had the murder solved that I was let down when I found out that I was right. BUTTERFLY may not be the best of Sharon Sala, but it still is an enjoyable light mystery. If this is your type of book, give her a try.