A Stone Cold Murder by Kris Bock
Reluctant Psychic Murder mystery #1
Great start to a new cozy murder mystery with Paranormal Psychometry gifted Petra Cloch moving to fictitious Bonneville, New Mexico where she uses her abilities to solve a crime.
What I Liked:
* Petra: geologist, psychometry-gifted, leery of touching things, tries to hide her abilities, trust issues, difficult childhood, hoping her new job at the Banditt Museum will be a good fit
* The women that will probably be her support system in the future books of the series: Liberty, Haven, Elena, Wilma, Ann Marie, Jenny, and Shelley – like the bonds developing between the women
* The Banditt Family: supportive, accepting, a bit eccentric, fodder for future stories
* Petra’s ten pets: three cats, 3 ferrets, 2 rats, and 2 guinea pigs…waiting to find out the rest of the names of them all as I’ve counted only six so far
* The way Petra found out a murder was committed through touching a chunk of fluorite crystals
* The way Liberty and Macario seemed to accept Petra’s psychometry
* The plot, pacing, setting, and writing
* Thinking about what it would be like to live in Bonneville, to have a paranormal ability like Petra’s or Liberty’s, and wondering if anyone else will have abilities in future books of the series
* That the criminals were revealed and all threads of the story were tied up at the end of the story
* All of it really except…
What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* That both Liberty and Petra had been taken advantage of in the past when others found out about their paranormal abilities
Did I like this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? If the synopsis sounds interesting, I would
Thank you to Book Sirens, Tule Publishing, and the author for the ARC – This is my honest review.
She hates her gift – but it just might save her…
Geologist Petra Cloch can touch an object and sense the emotions of the people who’ve held it. It’s a miserable way to live. She studied rocks because they rarely ‘talk’ to her and she’s dodged friendships so she won’t need to explain her gift or feel like a voyeur. But when she takes a job as the rock and mineral curator at an unusual western history museum and picks up a jagged crystal in her new office, flashes of rage, fear and death hit hard.
Everyone says her predecessor died in a car crash, but what if he was murdered? Under normal circumstances, Petra would never become involved, but what if the previous curator died because of something he did on the job? She could be next. Petra knows she’ll need evidence, not her psychic sense she hides. Can she trust her chatty colleagues who invite her to lunch and to join a book club? And what about the far too watchful Sheriff who keeps showing up unexpectedly…
