Murder al Dente: The 9th Nikki Hunter mystery
by Nancy Skopin
Okay, people who follow my reviews will be very surprised that I gave this book 5 stars when I found a proofing error in it. Yes, probably unfair to other authors who I come down on hard for proofing errors that any reasonable proofreader should see, but I think this is the first one I've found in 9 books, and it happened very early in the book, so I'm willing to give it a pass. There was also one scene (portion of a scene, really) at about the same location, where the author has Nikki throwing perfectly good recyclable trash in a trash container, rather than recycling it. I find it hard to believe the character, a thoroughly California girl -- and one that lives on the water, no less -- would do that. (Shrug).
But otherwise, it was a perfect read. Great plotting and pacing. Two disparate but equally interesting mysteries. Lots of action and danger. And, for the first time, we see Nikki and Nina working together willingly. The characters are believable and relatable, as fully fleshed out, consistently drawn while still leaving plenty of room for personal growth. The author uses a good amount of humor, interjects a reasonable amount of personal information, and ties everything up nicely in the end. No cliffhanger endings. Skopin sometimes has Nikki reading, and she always uses the name of actual authors and their characters. This time it was another series that I also follow: Jinx Schwartz's Hetta Coffey series. Another pop culture reference that made me smile was the mention of Nikki purchasing a coffee mug with the image of Richard Boone on it. His Paladin series, "Have Gun Will Travel," was a favorite of mine when I was a kid.
So, I believe this book is the last in the series so far. I've binge-read the last 4 books in the series. Now I have to wait until book 10 comes out maybe later this year or early 2020. Sigh.