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Member Since: Aug. 22, 2010

Kathleen Kelly

Smashwords book reviews by Kathleen Kelly

Marcie's Murder on April 06, 2012

Marcie's Murder by Michael J. McCann takes place a short time after the previous book, Blood Passage. Homicide Detective Lieutenant Hank Donaghue is on a much needed vacation after the previous case that he and his partner Detective Karen Stainer solved. Wherever the road takes him is where he goes and when he decides to stop in a small town in Virginia, he finds himself in trouble. He checks into his motel room but he can't sleep so goes to a bar for a beer or two. He sees a woman on his way into the bar but other than a glance at her he does not pay her a lot of attention. He has his drink and heads back to the motel, goes to sleep but is awakened by the local police. They proceed to take him to the jail after they have roughed him up. The police chief is one of the ones who had a hand in beating him and even though he tells them he has had nothing to do with the murder of a woman they do not believe him and keep him locked up. It turns out that the murdered woman is the police chief's wife and the woman that Hank saw at the bar. She was found behind the bar strangled. Hank finally gets his phone call and calls his no nonsense partner Karen Stainer. There the story really gets going. Getting the police to believe that Hank had nothing to do with the murder with Karen's help is not an easy task but they finally do let him go. Both Hank and Karen are asked to help with the investigation, they are reluctant at first in the light of how Hank was treated but they eventually agree. That is all I am going to say about the story other than the fact is that you absolutely have to read this authors work. This can be read as a stand alone novel but I would recommend that you read Blood Passage first so you do not miss out on getting to know Hank and Karen. A thoroughly enjoyable novel and I eagerly await the next installment in the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel Series. I give it 5 stars!!