Blog Tour: CONFLICT OF INTEREST by Dean L. Hovey
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Dean L. Hovey
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GENRE: Mystery/Police Procedural
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BLURB:
Whenthe body of a missing cheerleader is found in a ditch, the local police turnthe investigation over to the Pine County sheriff’s department, fearing thatthe girl’s relationship with the son of a local politician could compromisetheir objectivity.
Uponarriving at the scene, Sergeant CJ Jensen quickly finds herself embroiled inthe politics of the girl’s murder and kidnapping. Calling in Pam Ryan to assistwith the investigation, the two veteran officers dig into the girl’s obviousrelationship with the politician’s son. While the boyfriend’s shaky alibi seemspaper thin, their interviews with the victim’s friends have them questioningother aspects of her life.
Amissing laptop computer piques their interest, making them think the murderer’smotive may be buried in her on-line activities.
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Excerpt One:
Deputy Teddy Lawrence, recently appointed Field TrainingOfficer and senior Kanabec County night shift deputy was on patrol with thecounty’s newest hire. Teddy, a homebred Mora boy, was now in charge of showingthe ropes to the sheriff department’s rookie, Kayla Peterson. She was fresh outof Alexandria Technical College’s nine week “skills” training course, and shewas eager to be patrolling northwest of Ogilvie.
Kayla stretched and asked, “Why do we even check thisdead-end road to Ann Lake Wildlife Management area? No one drives out here thistime of year. There’s not even access to the lake from this side.”
“I’ve caught high school kids drinking, smoking dope, andnecking out here. It’s also the perfect place to ditch a stolen car or to dumpan unwanted appliance or garbage,” Teddy replied. Noticing a rolled-up carpetlying in the ditch, Teddy pulled the unit over.
Kayla looked around, trying to discern the reason they’dparked. “Why did you stop? All that’s here is some old carpet the road cleanuppeople will bag up when they come through. It’s not a police issue.”
Teddy got out of the car and led Kayla to the ditch. “Lifeout here is boring, Kay. You might as well check this out. Maybe the ownersrolled a piece of mail inside with their address.”
“Yeah, right. Maybe they left a note admitting they werelittering.” The rookie hesitated at the edge of the ditch, looking at the dirtywater trickling down the gully. When she realized Teddy wasn’t following her,she asked, “You’re not coming with me?”
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Review: It all began with the body of themissing cheerleader. Kicking off with a dead is always a good start. Whatfollowed right after was a lot of procedural tactics, random names, and lengthyprose. It gets better when they actually start looking into the crime andinvestigate. The fact that their main suspect was a county attorney’s son was aconflict of interest. The juicier stuff comes when we find out that the deadgirl was pregnant and was caught in bed with the son’s father—the countyattorney. Oooh!
This case wasn’t like an orange;it was more like an onion. “Every time we peel a layer, we find another layerinside it.” This was definitely an interesting case.
I honestly found this to be anengaging read. Of course, some of the interpersonal storyline and dialogueinvolving the team of investigators really didn’t do much for me. I mean, ithad nothing to do with the case and it only slowed the whole thing for me. Whenwe actually did talk about the case, some of the narrative was much tooprocedural and repetitive, which, again, slowed things down.
Overall, this a pretty good read.It started off as a solid 4, but then I knocked it down to 3.5 stars for thelong length and excessive narrative. The best part was the ending.
All in all, this is worth a read.
Rating:3.5 stars
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Dean Hovey is a Minnesota-based author with three mystery series.He lives with his wife south of Duluth.
Dean’s award-winning* Pine County series follows sheriff’sdeputies Floyd Swenson and Pam Ryan through this police procedural series.
Dean’s Whistling Pines books are humorous cozy mysteries centeredon the residents of the Whistling Pines senior residence. The protagonist isPeter Rogers, the Whistling Pines recreation director.
In Dean’s latest series hisprotagonist, a retired Minnesota policeman, is drafted into service as aNational Park Service Investigator after a murder at a National Monument.
* “Family Trees: A Pine County Mystery” won the 2018 NEMBA awardfor best fiction.
https://bookswelove.net/hovey-dean/
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GIVEAWAY
DeanL. Hovey will award a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
