Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Chelsea Field - The Poison is the New Black

When Mr. Black becomes the top suspect in a murder investigation, Isobel Avery is roped into helping Etta, her Glock, and her greyhound clear his name.
Except her boyfriend Connor is warning her to stay out of it, the new client she’s protecting from poison threats requires her full attention, and oh yeah, Izzy thinks Mr. Black might be guilty… He did once try to beat her to a pulp after all.
To make matters worse, Etta and Izzy aren’t the only ones digging in to this case, and the other parties are a whole lot more dangerous. And if Mr. Black didn’t do it, then the real killer is still out there and might not appreciate their interference.
As Izzy struggles to make sure the right bad guy goes to prison, find her footing in her new romantic relationship, and integrate herself into her client’s alien world of high-society ladies—the same world the victim is from—she’d better watch out for poisons, vengeance, and firebombs.
*** Includes bonus short story: Taste of Christmas ***

Comment: This is the third installment in the series featuring heroine Izzy Avery. Izzy is a Poison  Taster, someone with the ability to detect poisons which don't affect her as it does to other people and she is now living in America working as a taster and trying to earn enough to pay the debts she left in Australia...

In this third novel, things have improved for Izzy, she is finally making regular money and her debts' payment is steady, she likes what she does, she has friends and her first client Connor is now simply her boyfriend. However, Izzy can't seem to get out of trouble and she is convinced by her neighbor to help mr Black, the enforcer who went after her when her payments weren't enough. Now Izzy feels she has to help the man, since he actually helped her then, but the case proves to be way more tricky. Izzy and her neighbor play being detectives but when things become too difficult to solve, can Connor help them?

In this book, the Taster work Izzy does seems to have a secondary role and the focus of the story is on the investigation Izzy and elderly neighbor Etta do to prove the innocence of Mr Black, the enforcer who we've met in book #1, when he was following Izzy, so she could be "reminded" of the debts she had to pay. Such a meeting would not suggest Izzy would see mr Back as more than the proof her life wasn't on track, but now that it is, she actually feels like helping.

Obviously, this is evidence Izzy is a good person, quite a softie in fact, and she wants to help as soon as she also meets mr Black's wife and daughter, who firmly believe the innocence of their provider. On one hand, I've felt this plot was a bit too limited and I wasn't always as fond of the process, especially because the Taster side of things wasn't as important (it seemed so) and this means Izzy's need to do this or that didn't feel as necessary either. Basically, some situations were a little boring to read through.

I like mr Black, he is described as an enforcer by force, since he had lost his job and his aspect is intimidating, so being an enforcer would work, but he too is a man who doesn't feel the need to hurt others and would like another work. Others misjudged him or are using him as a scapegoat of some kind, but I confess the details related to him and his role in this plot weren't truly fascinating to me...

I did like how the writing style is pretty much the same and I like how there are some interesting and serious tidbits here and there, which makes me more interested in the character development. I like Izzy and how she thinks, how she goes through her emotions... of course, as the story moves along, it can seem a little unfair how we can only guess Connor's intentions by dialogue or interactions and Izzy can be a little distracted sometimes... I hope this details will be better developed as the books progress.

The romance, which is now officially such, was also a bit superficially addressed, after all they are together but things seem to go too slow and not even the two or three sentences Connor says to appease Izzy's doubts convinced me the balance between plot and romance was being well accomplished here. Perhaps I wasn't int he right mood but this book did seem a little less vibrant and fun as the others were before.

All things considered, this was my least favorite book of the series, but I'm confident the next one might be better.
An interesting note, my ebook edition had a bonus, a shoert story with Izzy visiting Connor's mother and sister to spend Christmas. It was cute and had a small Taster scene but I'd say it was more a slice of life than a short story.
Grade: 7/10

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