Book Review: Beach Bags and Burglaries

Book: Beach Bags and Burglaries (Haley Randolph book #8) by Dorothy Howell

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

The island has everything Haley imagined: pristine beaches, posh accommodations, and possibly Brad Pitt. But trouble soon looms on the horizon when Jaslyn Gordon, a maid at the island resort, goes missing. And while practically looting the resort for a Sea Vixen beach bag, Haley of course finds the maid - on the beach - and clearly dead. Everyone at the resort says Jaslyn's death was just an accident, but Haley thinks there's a lot going unsaid - especially when she spots hunky FBI agent Luke Warner. He claims to be on the island only for a wedding but Haley's not buying it. Haley's faced down clever criminals before and always come out on top, but this malicious murderer might be too crafty. And though she's dying to get her hands on a Sea Vixen, she also wants to live long enough to be seen with it!


Rating: 2 stars

Review:

When Haley Randolph won a free vacation at a luxury resort the only thing she was hoping to do was relax and maybe find this hard this elusive beach bag the Sea Vixen. But before Haley and her three best friends Bella, Marcie and Sandy arrived at the resort, news and rumors have been spreading that an employee Jaslyn Gordon had gone missing from the resort.

So, while Haley was trying to find the guest she saw who was carrying the elusive Sea Vixen beach bag, she wound up in a desert area of the island where stumbled upon the missing woman's body.

It doesn't look like it's going to be a good relaxing vacation especially with two incompetent detectives thinking the employee's death was an accident. But after Haley spoke with Avery, her resort Personal Hostess she started to suspect that that maybe it wasn't an accident. And in between trying to solve the murder she found herself as the instant maid of honor for her "friend" Yasmin when the maid of honor wasn't able to attend the wedding.

Despite this being a light-hearted fun mystery, there were a few issues I had with it. First, after Haley found the missing woman's body it took a while for the mystery solving to start. The story got sidetracked quite a bit.

The second was Haley's problem with older people. The character always made little comments about them especially when she saw this older lady who had the Sea Vixen beach bag that she wanted. She just couldn't believe someone who looked and dressed like her could possibly have such a cool bag.

And some of the things Haley said can make her seem really shallow.

I like the parts of the story where Haley was hanging with her friends trying to enjoy their vacation but the mystery wasn't that good and Haley really sucked as an amateur detective. If she wasn't calling her contacts for information she just lucked up on clues. She really didn't do much in regards to detecting.

But this is a fast paced and quick read and if it wasn't for the character interactions this probably wouldn't be worth reading. Honestly, this would have been great as a girls getaway chick lit instead of a mystery book.