Absence of Alice

With Absence of Alice, Sherry Harris offers us a prime example of the quality and uniqueness that makes the Sarah Winston Mystery series outstanding. I am an avid reader of cozy mysteries and Sarah Winston meets many of the best characteristics of the cozy world, but the variety alone takes it beyond the standard for the usual cozy mysteries. At the same time, the small-town warmth, great friendships, and Sarah’s somewhat unusual career of organizing garage sales, as well the limited description of murders keep the series and Absence of Alice on the lighter side of traditional mysteries. When Sarah gets a call that her best friend has been kidnapped, the kidnapper says he will kill Stella if Sarah approaches any of people she usually counts on. She believes that he can find out if she does so; nothing is secret in a small town. Her only choice is to act as normal as possible and do everything he says while she tries to figure out who he is and where he is hiding Stella. For a woman who is friends with police officers and dating the district attorney, she is in a really bad position. It doesn’t help that she doesn’t lie. She cannot image why anyone would kidnap a friend to get at her or who would play games, deadly games, with her in exchange for clues to her friend’s whereabouts. Even if she does manage to rescue her friend, odd are that her other friends will feel betrayed and little that matters in her life will be the quite same again. Sarah’s strength and intelligence in life and in solving murders, as well as her kind heart and the warmth of her circle of friends draw me to this must-buy series time after time. I requested an ARC through NetGalley because I love the series so much that I just can’t wait to get my hands on it and I know am going to shout about it anyway, but I also love it so much that I pre-order a personal copy for every book. #NetGalley #Absence of Alice

kidnapping, suspense, scary-parts, scavenger-hunt, threats, law-enforcement, small-business, small-town, Massachusetts, amateur-sleuth***** Stella is Sarah's friend and landlady but she is absent because she was kidnapped by someone with a malicious sense of humor with the greater intent of making Sarah go through hoops and suffer guilt. The suspense is intense and the plot twists are quite diabolical but there is no violence and sometimes there is just the right touch of humor. While this is one in a series, it easily stands alone. Excellent reading! I requested and received a free ebook copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley. Thank you!