The Girl Next Door by Brad Parks

The Girl Next Door by Brad Parks – 336 pages – ARC

Book Blurb:

Reading his own newspaper’s obituaries, veteran reporter Carter Ross comes across that of a woman named Nancy Marino, who was the victim of a hit-and-run while she was on the job delivering copies of that very paper, the Eagle-Examiner. Struck by the opportunity to write a heroic piece about an everyday woman killed too young, he heads to her wake to gather tributes and anecdotes. It’s the last place Ross expects to find controversy—which is exactly what happens when one of Nancy’s sisters convinces him that the accident might not have been accidental at all. It turns out that the kind and generous Nancy may have made a few enemies, starting with her boss at the diner where she was a part-time waitress, and even including the publisher of the Eagle-Examiner. Carter’s investigation of this seemingly simple story soon has him in big trouble with his full-time editor and sometime girlfriend, Tina Thompson, not to mention the rest of his bosses at the paper, but he can’t let it go—the story is just too good, and it keeps getting better. But will his nose for trouble finally take him too far?

My Review: 3.5 stars

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The Girl Next Door is the perfect mystery for the beach. The main character is charming, witty and smart. It’s an easy to read, simple to follow who done it novel. For me, it was what I like to call a palette cleanser book. Meaning it’s different from what I usually read, it’s light and a quick page-turner.

The main character, Carter Ross, reminded me of the quick-witted actor Rick Castle, from the Castle TV show and book series. I wish I understood more about Tina and McNabb. They were both important characters yet quite undeveloped in my opinion.

I don’t read many mysteries but this one came to me as an ARC in 2012 and somehow got lost amongst my piles of books. I apologize for the lengthy delay. Overall, great summer read that you can read in a couple days.

Quotes I liked:

In the end, I just engaged in a staring contest with the wall. The wall kept winning, but I felt like I was gaining on it.”

-“It’s one thing to be threatened. It’s quite another thing to be threatened in grammatically incorrect fashion. I felt like some basic right as a literate American had been violated.”

– “To anyone who says newspapers only print bad news, I say: read the obituaries.”

-“And what always strikes me is that when you strip away the superficial differences in clothing, setting, and dialect, groups of people everywhere are more or less the same. We all have our pretenses. We all posture to a certain degree. But ultimately, most of us are just trying to find a way to fit in.”