In Sharpe Cookie by Lisa B. Thomas, Deena and Gary Sharpe accompany Deena’s brother, Russell Sinclair, and his wife, Estelle Fitzhew Sinclair, to the high- end estate auction of Estelle’s parents. To honor her parents, Estelle has her family’s old chauffeur, Leonard Deets, drive them to the auction in the family’s old Bentley. But things go wrong at the sale, as Estelle notices items getting auctioned that she had set aside to keep. When a cherished painting goes up for auction, Estelle races to the front, grabs the painting, and runs out the building, only for everyone to hear a scream. When she goes outside, Deena finds Estelle staring in horror at Leonard lying dead on the ground next to a gold coin belonging to a set scheduled to be sold but discovered stolen. It looks like he was killed when the coin thief escaped with the set and ran into Leonard.
Determined to get to the bottom of the murder of her mother’s loyal driver, Estelle enlists the assistance of Deena to help her investigate the case. Assigned to do community service for kicking the auctioneer in the shin when taking the picture, Estelle helps out at the charity thrift shop run temporarily by Deena while her best friend is on maternity leave. Then strange things start happening in the store, which Estelle interprets as messages from her dead mother. Soon the sisters- in- law find themselves rushing to solve the theft and murder before someone else gets hurt or even killed.
Sharpe Cookie was a fun, creative book in the Maycroft Murder Mysteries series. This sixth book is my favorite so far in the series. It had a great plot, with delightful details and characters. I had fun as the women keep changing their minds about the identity of the murderer, coming to a new conclusion each day. The pair’s deductions have clever repercussions for the unique plot points.
The characters add a lot to the fun of the book. I especially enjoyed getting to know Estelle, who is usually down-to-earth with her blue- collar husband, Deena’s brother, Russ. However, she can channel her mother’s imperiousness when necessary to interrogate people. The developing relationship between Deena and Estelle adds significantly to the pleasure of listening to this book.
Kelley Hazen performs the audio edition of Sharpe Cookie and adds to the fun of this delightful book. I particularly appreciated her voicing of the character of Estelle, who speaks with a different accent than the Texan accent of Deena and others from her community. Hazen does a great job of making this book come alive.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Sharpe Cookie, a highly creative book that uses twists and turns to make the plot all that more pleasurable. I definitely recommend listening to the prior books in the series before this one, but fans of the series will especially appreciate this book. I give this book five stars.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free for review purposes, but that had no impact on the content of the review.
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