Hit Time

Being in the right place at the right time, is what happened to TV reported Georgia Barnett. Covering a human interest story, she is the first reporter on the scene when an anonymous body is found floating in the cold lake. Always out to be first with the scoop of the day, Georgia begins her own unofficial investigation of this case. When one of the prime suspects is a childhood family friend, Georgia goes into high gear to solve this case with help from her cameraman, her twin sister and friends around and about the neighborhood. In the like of some of my other favorite female detectives, Georgia methodically elimates suspect after suspect. Having a cop for a boyfriend helps as she tends to stay a step ahead of them, but leans heavily on them for backup when she gets herself in dire situations. This was an enjoyable read with lots of characters with motives to make this a good mystery.

Georgia Barnett is a feisty, brash and well-known television reporter for WJIV news in Chicago. Her latest assignment covering a charity event at Lake Michigan turns into the scoop of a lifetime when one of the witnesses finds a dead body floating in the water. It turns out that the man in the water, a murder victim, was Fab Weaver, a former record producer who was famous in the seventies on Chicago's Record Row. Georgia becomes personally involved in the case when a family friend, guitarist Jimmy Flamingo, becomes the number one suspect in the murder. Jimmy, like so many other people, had a grudge against the record producer because Fab cheated him out of money. Georgia decides to do some investigating, not realizing that she is putting herself in the line of fire. HIT TIME is a fascinating amateur sleuth tale starring an in your face heroine who endears herself to the reader with her wit, cleverness and bravado. The first person narrative allows the audience to feel close to Georgia and hope she can solve the case without getting herself killed in the process. Ardella Garland has constructed a complex mystery that takes so many twists and turns that the reader will never see who the real villain is.Harriet Klausner