Murder in Lava Cove
Alene Anderson
Romantic Mystery
Maggie Garrett graduated from medical school and is doing her residency in Lava Cove, Utah. The first day in the new town she is out running with a Golden Retriever and she discovers a dead body.
Zach Landel is the owner of the Desert Winds Casino in Las Vegas. He was a helicopter rescue pilot in the Marines and when he stepped on a land mind, it exploded and he lost one eye. Now he wears a patch, one that bothers him but doesn’t seem to faze the intriguing Maggie Garrett.
Despite their differences, can he and Maggie work together to solve the murder of his employee?
Uncaged Review: A nice mystery for a lazy afternoon. After graduating from UCLA, Maggie gets a residency at a plastic surgeon’s clinic in Lava Cove, Utah. Ending up leasing a home from a casino owner, Zach Landel, with the condition that she take care of his golden retriever, Charlie. While out jogging with Charlie, she finds a dead body and the mystery begins. The dead woman used to work at Zach’s casino. Zach is in the process of selling his casino, and carries his own baggage. Wounded in Afghanistan from a land mine, he has been through painful surgeries after losing an eye, and then a fiancé because of his looks, now afraid of getting involved with another woman. But Maggie is different, and he can’t take his mind off her. Will she shun him for his looks?
Together they try to unravel the mystery, but it becomes dangerous when someone tries to run Maggie off the road, is she getting too close?
This is a cozy mystery, and had a few good twists that weren’t predictable right away. The characters were likable and it was easy to picture the setting from the author’s descriptions.  Reviewed by Cyrene
4 Stars
