good interesting murder mystery! ( )

Two middle aged dectectives with plenty of clues and suspects when an elderly woman is found dead in her bedroom, whose front door stands 52 steps above the street. I laughed out loud a few times, something I rarely do when reading a murder mystery. ( )

This is a fun book, and I have already started the second book in the series. It is refreshing to read a modern day mystery novel with no sex, swearing, and though the detectives are religious men, the religion isn't shoved down your throat. It is a Christian, but nondenominational,expression of faith. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in mysteries. ( )

Lt. Cy Dekker, the head of homicide for the Hilldale Police Department and his partner and friend, Sgt. Lou Murdock, have a murder to solve on Hilltop Place and at one point it seemed possible that there could be as many victims as suspects. In describing the pair, I can only comment that they are not the usual pair of homicide detectives I've encountered in my reading prior to this novel.

I enjoyed their recollections of television commercials in particular but readers in a different age group may not see the humor that Cy and Lou bring to their daily conversations and coping mechanisms for off-duty pleasures to unwind and refresh for a new day of murder investigation.

Overall, I felt it's a slow paced reading experience. In many mysteries, law enforcement doesn't even seem to eat let alone take a few minutes to stop at home, shower and change, and be back on the job. Cy and Lou definitely march to the beat of their matched set of drums.

I don't give spoilers but I will say that I still have many outstanding questions at the end of the novel as multiple suspects were missing in action about 3/4 of the way through the novel and at the end those loose ends are not tied off but sadly simply ignored.

I can't say that I'll continue reading the series but when I first began joining various Facebook groups related to reading, Steve Demaree was an author that frequently posted and commented so I wanted to read at least one of the books he authored. Goal achieved. ( )

I found this book free on Amazon. I still can't understand how could this have been possible. The book is great. It's funny and cunning.
The characters are great and the story is well written.
I am a great crime novels' fan, and I always enjoy a good crime story. I am obliged to say that this book is a piece of art. The crime itself is very intelligently made and almost impossible to solve.
In short I like it a lot. I plan to read the next books from the series too. ( )