Nasty Breaks

Third entry in the series. There was a seven year gap between the third and fourth volumes, far too long. Nice, straightforward mystery novel, no sex, violence or profanity. Likable characters. I learned most of what I know about golf from the two earlier books in the series, which I read when they first were published. Kindle version somewhat marred by lots of typos, the proofreader gets a failing mark on this one.

This is the third of a series of four murder mysteries featuring lady golfer Lee Ofsted and her boyfriend Graham Sheldon. The series to date consists of: 1) Wicked Slice 2) Rotten Lies 3) Nasty Breaks 4) Where have all the Birdies gone? The prologue, in 1971, describes a tragic event during salvage operations off Block Island, a small and beautiful place off the coast of New England. Then the action cuts to "the present day" (approximately 1997 when the book was published). Lee Ofsted is an up-and-coming lady golfer trying to make it in the Women's Professional Golf League. She is between tournaments when she gets a lucrative offer to spend a week teaching golf to executives of a salvage company at Block Island. And when her boyfriend Graham, a former cop who is now an international security consultant, gets a chance to join her on the island, it appears that Lee's stay on Block island will be most enjoyable. But soon after she has arrived on the island, funny things start to happen. First there is a ludicrously inept attempt to kidnap a prominent person connected with the salvage company for whose executives the golf course is being run. Then Lee and Graham find the owner of the company murdered. And it soon appears that almost every senior executive had a motive for the killing. Eventually a tale of greed and ambition going back almost two hundred years is discovered ... Entertaining and well written murder mystery.

Professional golfer Lee Ofsted has just landed an instructor's job assisting fellow pro Jackie Piper at a beautiful Rhode Island resort. Her job is to provide golf lessons to the employees of a marine salvage company. To Lee, this is an easy way to combine a vacation with making an easy grand a day for a week. However, the anticipated idyllic week goes sour at the fourth hole when Darlene Chappell, the spouse of the salvage company president, Stuart, is almost kidnapped. Soon afterward, Stuart is found murdered. Lee and her friend begin to investigate the murder. To their amazement, many people had the motive to kill Stuart. However, as she gets closer to the truth, Lee literally finds herself in a sudden death game in which her life is the ultimate stake. The third Lee Ofsted mystery novel is a fabulous who-done-it due to the brilliant characterizations of the lead protagonist, her associates, and all the duffers hooking their swing. The story line is interesting as Charlotte and Aaron Elkins scribes a fabulous amateur sleuth tale. This reviewer recommends to lovers of golf and amateur sleuth stories, all three books (the previous two are WICKED SLICE and ROTTEN LIES) because they are superb mysteries. Harriet Klausner