Murder Unmentionable
Sweet Nothings Lingerie Mystery, Book #1
By Meg London
ISBN#  9780425251577
Author’s Website: http://www.meglondon.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Emma Taylor finally achieved the life she always wanted in the bustling city of New York.  She had her small overpriced apartment, a great job as a fashion stylist, and a hunky French boyfriend.  She had it all until she found out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her; repeatedly!

Now Emma is back in Paris, Tennessee helping her Aunt Arabella resurrect her struggling lingerie shop, Sweet Nothings.  Emma is catching up with old friends, including her best friend, Liz, and Liz’s handsome brother, Brian, who just happens to be available to help with the renovations!

Everything is going perfectly when Emma’s cheating ex-boyfriend, Guy, shows up to try and woo her back to him and New York!  And, when Guy ends up murdered inside of Sweet Nothings after-hours, Emma becomes the prime suspect.  With the small-minded police detective in charge of the investigation, Emma quickly realizes that the only way to clear her name is to figure out exactly who the murderer is.

I really wanted to like this novel, honest!  But, I just….didn’t.  I found the book to be pretty mundane and boring.  I was all geared up for a murder mystery, but the murder in this story seemed to be in the background and the preparations for Sweet Nothing’s grand opening took center stage.  Not to mention I knew who the murderer was almost as soon as they were introduced to the story; right about the time that Emma found out that this person had been on vacation the week of the murder.

I struggled for a long time trying to decide why I just didn’t like these characters and I finally figured it out; they have no depth!  You learn about the characters.  The book tells you what they look like, what they do, and what they eat and drink (constantly), but none of them had any kind of real back-story.  I think the author tried to give a little bit of their past, such as Brian’s ex-fiancé, but it just wasn’t enough.  I could not relate to the characters and found the interactions between them to be dull and lacking.  The character that I found most interesting was the first one to be murdered and even he was pretty one-dimensional.

And, it’s never a good sign when a book details a secondary character’s love life more than the main character’s!  I really felt that this story was all about the senior citizen dating scene with Arabella and her two suitors.  I wanted something to happen between Emma and Brian and then he called her Amy, which made it pretty hard to swoon for him.  I also kept thinking they were going to redeem Guy’s character by finding out he brought Nikki to town to model for Sweet Nothing’s website, but that didn’t happen so he just died a cheater.

I’m sure that there is somebody out there that this book would be perfect for, but sadly that person just isn’t me.