On Borrowed Crime
Series: A Jane Doe Book Club Mystery Book #1
Author: Kate Young
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Page Count: 304
My Rating:
Book Summary
A shoe-in read for fans of Ellery Adams and Kate Carlisle, On Borrowed Crime is the first in Kate Young’s new Georgia-set, sweet tea filled, Jane Doe Book Club mysteries.
The Jane Doe book club enjoys guessing whodunit, but when murder happens in their midst, they discover solving crimes isn’t fun and games…
Lyla Moody loves her sleepy little town of Sweet Mountain, Georgia. She likes her job as receptionist for her uncle’s private investigative firm, her fellow true crime obsessed Jane Doe members are the friends she’s always wanted, and her parents just celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. But recently, with her best friend Melanie on vacation, and her ex-boyfriend and horrible cousin becoming an item and moving in next door to her, her idyllic life is on the fritz. The cherry on top of it all is finding Carol, a member of the club, dead and shoved into a suitcase, left at Lyla’s front door.
Unusual circumstances notwithstanding, with Carol’s heart condition, the coroner rules Carol’s death undetermined. But when they discover the suitcase belongs to Melanie, who had returned from her vacation the following morning, Sweet Mountain police begin to suspect Lyla’s best friend. Determined that police are following the wrong trail, to clear her friend’s name, and to not allow Carol to become one of the club’s studied cold cases, Lyla begins to seek out the real killer. That is, until she becomes the one sought after. Now, finding the truth could turn her into the killer’s next plot twist, unless she wins the game of cat and mouse.
More Facts for Readers about our Sleuth:
Main Sleuth: Lyla Jane Moody (age 31, Millenial)
Best friend: Melanie (Mel) Smart
Physical Description: White female, porcelain skin, copper-colored hair
Location: Sweet Mountain, Georgie. 45 minutes outside of Atlanta. Deep South.
Time of Year: September
Business: Cousins Investigative Services (owned by her uncle). Working to become a PI.
Club: The Jane Doe Book Club
Pet: None
Love Interest: None, although possibly Quinn Daniels, the chief of police
Family: Mom, Dad, Uncle, Grandmother
Cussing? Yes, but very few.
Diversity? Not so much. I honestly don’t think there were any non-white characters in this book.
My Review
I went back and forth about how I’d rate ‘On Borrowed Crime’ book 1 in the Jane Doe Book Club mystery series by Kate Young, but ultimately I give it 5 stars! The few qualms I had with this novel couldn’t outweigh the good time I had trying to unravel the mystery along with the main sleuth Lyla. So let’s start with the positives! This cozy married a cold case with a fresh case of murder which forced our sleuth to dig into a past murder to uncover the present murder – a really fun dynamic that I see rarely in other cozies!
There’s also the character dynamics to consider – the author wasn’t afraid to show a sort of ugly side to everyone. Lyla’s parents were having arguments, her mother is cold, withholding and judgemental, her ex love interest is mostly dismissive, and some of her fellow book club members were nasty about her interest in wanting to help solve the case. There were a lot of not-so-cozy, prickly personalities which at first felt unpleasant to read, but that I ultimately decided was a nice change of pace. It’s ok to be different!
I honestly couldn’t put the book down and just wanted to know how everything tied together. And a bigger part of me wanted Lyla to overcome all of the negativity that was coming at her from all directions (her parents, her ex, her ‘friends’), and I was not disappointed.
The only negatives I felt were… that as a northerner I struggled with the southern aspect of the novel to a small extent. Not so much the ‘ya’lls’ and cultural differences but the use of ‘Daddy’ coming from a 31 year old is weird to me, and the Mother constantly talking about Lyla needing to get married and have babies – ugh. The constant show of disrespect from the Mother about Lyla’s ‘dead’ club and her choice of profession, the one member of the book club who had kids acting like she was fed up with Lyla because she was just trying to have “me time” and solving the murder of her friend wasn’t as important as relaxing while she had time away from her kids – wow. The book also lacked diversity – you definitely get the sense that it’s the white south and the characters are in their own bubble of privilege. But if I’m being honest – we all know that some social circles really are that insular in real life.
** I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.**
