Burnout

From the Publisher: Goosey Larsen isn't your average detective, and it's doubtful that he'll ever reach that level of performance. His annual personnel review described him as someone who "lacks motivation" and "needs to improve his interpersonal skills."

Goosey can usually be found coming in late or sneaking out early, but when dead bodies start turning up in downtown Charleston, Goosey is forced to do the one thing he hates most: policework.

My Review: This book has three of my favorite things (in no particular order):

1. Mystery.
2. Humor
3. Charleston, SC

If you give me a book with just one of those, I'm happy. If you give me one with two, I'm giddy. If all three are there, I'm ecstatic! Author James Vachowski gives us a book that is full of humor and takes us into the mind of a police officer that is just doing enough work to not get fired. Detective Mike Larsen (a.k.a. Goosey) of the Charleston Police Department has been on the force for years. He is in charge of missing person cases. He tries to keep a low profile so the higher up's won't give him any more work to do but when his pager goes off at 6:30 a.m. one morning, little does Mike know that that is the start of a whirlwind week for him!

He's called to a crime scene at MUSC (Medical University of South Carolina) where a body has been found floating in a pool. Of course, Larsen is wanting it to be an accidental death. That way, he won't have so much paperwork to do but when the ID of the body comes back a missing person, he's got a full blown case on his hands. Just what he didn't want.

That is just the start of it. More bodies keep turning up and they all are classified as "missing persons" and they all have one thing in common. A mysterious chemical in their blood that cannot be identified. Why do the bodies have this same chemical in them and why are they all classified as "missing"? Who could be behind it all and will Mike be able to figure it all out before someone else dies and he has one more case to add to his workload?? You've just got to buy the book to find out! :)

I really did enjoy this book and recommend it if you like humorous mysteries. The characters in it are hilarious, and very well thought out. The nicknames Vachowski gives them are hilarious as well! The only thing I wish was explained that wasn't, was how Mike got his nickname, Goosey. I guess we can only speculate :) And the only thing I really didn't like about the book was that it seemed to end abruptly. I would have liked to have had an epilogue so I could have seen what happened after the crime was solved. If you read the book, maybe you'll see what I'm saying :) I don't want to give any of it away! But other than that, it was really good!

Click here to purchase Burnout on Amazon!

*Please note: Burnout does have some language in it but not too bad. And there were a few typos but not bad enough to make me want to stop reading. Example, the name of a doctor in the book is one thing but a couple of lines later, it is something else. I had to re-read to make sure he was talking about the same person. That was the biggest one. The others were little, like a misspelled word. 

                                                  ****4 Stars! I really liked this book!!