Reviews

Dipped, Stripped, and Dead by Sarah A. Hoyt, Elise Hyatt

git_r_read's review

3.0

I wanted to like this book...and I did at least enough to finish it. I loved the new premise for the amateur sleuth, a single mom of a toddler and has her own furniture refinishing business she runs in her garage/shed. There's a lot of neat info on the how-to for refinishing along the story and at the end of the book. I liked that the book is set in Colorado, near Denver, so close to my heart, even though I couldn't figure out where the fictional town of Goldport was supposed to be emulating. I spent some time working that out..got sidetracked..then got even more sidetracked with the constant comparative narrative (at least that's what I call it). The kind that has each piece of information or person compared to something else...and I wish I could find an example, next time I'll put sticky notes inside.
I did have the two mysteries figured out, but it didn't matter. I was good for being along for the ride of the meandering. There's the requisite exasperated hottie cop to the rescue and the gay best friend. I know this series will smooth out as it progresses, I'll get the next in the series when it comes out.
Three it has good possibilities beans.....

tlsouthard's review

3.0

OK little toss-away mystery. Too much repetition of detail-we hear too often about her best friend being gay, her parents being odd, her dietary habits. I think it was the mark of an author trying to establish a character in the first book of a series. Let's hope so. Won't be hanging onto the book, but I'll pass it along to friends as a "beach read" type of book.

angrygreycatreads's review

3.0

I liked the protagonist Dyce, a divorced single mom, and her sidekick, Ben. The mystery was well plotted. There were some interesting and humorous characters to add color to the story, a cross-dressing ex-Marine furniture maker for one and Dyce’s parents and son for others. The romantic interest in the form of Cas was intriguing and I’m sure the romance will be developed more in later books. The dual nature of the mystery was well done, but I won’t say more than that. This is a series that I will continue to follow.

katherineep's review

1.0

This book had way to much going on to fit into the 280 pages. Ben and Cas were likable and interesting. Dyce would've been likable and interesting if there hadn't been so much drama. Between the fact that all she ate was pancakes (which is repeated regularly), her crazy parents, her weird name and how she got it, her annoying ex-husband and his even more annoying new wife, her son's selective mutism, her ratty apartment, her crappy car, her dislike of Ben's crazy boyfriend and her increasingly to stupid to live actions which by the end pass TSTL and go straight to plain moronic it was just way to much. The plot and the important characters got lost in the overabundace of detail. It's too bad because I liked the foundation of the story. I may pick up another Hyatt book but it won't be a first choice.