Book Review: High Tide

 High Tide is a cozy mystery by Ann Summerville. Summerville is a Texan. She wasn’t always a Texan, though. She was born in England then moved to the States, eventually settling in the great country, uh, state of Texas. She started out British but we now lay claim to her, I have to admit the woman knows her roots. High Tide is set in the English west country village of Lowenna. I swear, reading the book made me cold. It also made me wish I lived in a little country village where everybody knows everybody’s business. Wait a minute, I don’t wish that. I would, however, like a town where there’s lots going on and the people care and look out for each other, and where there are quaint, interesting shops to visit, and a nice bar to pop into and have a drink with friends, and Italy is only a train ride away.

I could probably do without the body floating in with the high tide. Gia (Giovanna Matthews) is the kind of friend you’d want to have. She has her suspicions and doesn’t think the death was an accident. She has no proof, but sets about trying to solve the murder. The body’s not the only thing on her mind, though. There’s another little thing like her boyfriend’s apparent fiancée showing up.

High Tide has some great characters. Gia, of course. Then there’s Rose. I liked her spunk. She’s the kind of lady who’ll put a leather jacket over her dress and hop on Bob the Biker’s motorcycle and roar off with him. Old, smold.

When you read High Tide, pay attention to the details. Gia does. And in the end she does more than just solve the case of the washed up body. She saves a life.

High Tide
Amazon
Kindle

Since this is the first book by Ann Summerville that I’ve read, although it’s not the first she’s written, I give High Tide a rating of Hel-O!

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FTC Disclaimer: High Tide was sent to me by the author. That did not influence my review. If you read my review (and I suspect some of you are skipping to the Disclaimer), then you know what I liked about the book. Let me address one item in my review. Gia and her friend Holly got on a train and went to Italy. They rode a gondola. They stayed at a fabulous hotel. They zipped off to Italy, people. If I got on a train, I could go to Mineola. I’m sure it’s lovely, but it’s not Italy. When Gia steps out her door, she sees the water. Unfortunately, she’s scared to death of seaweed. When I step out my door, I see cedar trees and hills and deer and roadrunners and armadillos. Okay, that’s not bad. But it’s not Italy. I need Bob the Biker to zip by my house so we could roar off to Italy. Of course, there’s no bridge from Texas to Italy, so we’d probably end up in Italy, Texas, which I’m sure is a nice place. But I have no leather jacket. And he’d probably take a curve too fast just to dump me ‘cause I’d be screaming in his ear.