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Rigged for Murder

Jenifer LeClair
Durban House Publishing Company (2008)
ISBN 9781930754881
Reviewed by Leslie Storey for RebeccasReads (8/09)

“Rigged for Murder” is the first of a new series by Jenifer LeCair.  They say you should write what you know, and the author has done that by incorporating sailing into her books.  She has been an avid sailor since she was 17 and has been on many windjammer cruises since 1995.

Detective Brie Beaumont has taken leave from her job with the Minneapolis Police Department from an incident that killed her partner and left her with PTSD.  She decides to take a leave of absence and go back to her roots and what is familiar, sailing.  Brie signs up for a windjammer cruise in the Northeast aboard the Maine Wind and while she tries to escape her past for awhile, a man is murdered on the cruise in the middle of a bad storm.  True to form, Brie calls upon all of her skills as an investigator and looks into the murder and then the apparent suicide of another shipmate.  Was it suicide or was he also killed?

“Rigged for Murder” grabbed me after the first chapter.  While the book is not heavy on sailing terms and techniques, there is enough information and imagery that paints a picture of the ship and how the crew must work together to run it.  The character Brie is dealing with her own issues but is able to put them aside to look for clues, minus any CSI type assistance from the Coast Guard or local police – because there is none on the island!

The author also incorporates a love interest for Brie with Captain John DuLac.  There is a mutual interest and while the characters do not move too far forward to fast in this possible relationship, there is enough to keep the reader interested but not so much that it does not seem real. 

The author did a good job of hiding who the killer was because I did not figure it out until near the end when the killer was revealed.  To me, that is a sign of a good writer, one that does not give away too many clues of who the killer is before you are half way through the book.  I do wish there had been more sailing terms used, but too many would have left a novice wondering what everything meant and would have detracted from the actual story.

I recommend this book for anyone that likes mysteries (cozy or otherwise) and have an interest in sailing, you’ll find that this books is a great combination of the two.

 


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