Jake is summoned by his sister to her house in the Lake of the Ozarks area. She is charged with murder of her husband, but was is suicide instead. A few twists and turns, and addition of quite a few folks, that seem to drink more than anything, including Fred the dog. Finally tidied up in the end with the real killer fessing up ( )

I'm holding off rating this one - better than a 3, not quite a 4.

Jacob Martin has been laid off from his computer programming job, and is trying to fill in his days and income with writing and handyman jobs. His wife is divorcing him, and he's left with his wonderful golden retriever dog. Then his sister calls him when she's been arrested for the murder of her husband, and his father is in the hospital in critical condition.

I liked Jacob and his dog. His sister annoyed me, to be honest, and Mom wasn't much better.

Some surprising twists in this tale as Jacob unravels the facts of what's going on.

This murder mystery will definitely hold your attention while you follow Jake playing detective. While he starts out trying to find out who killed his sister's fourth husband he learns it has something to do with stolen gold coins. This type of investigation is way out of Jake's league but he wants to prove his sister is innocent of murdering her husband and get her out of jail so he and his sidekick, Fred, (a golden retriever) keep searching for the truth. This fast-paced novel has Jake run off the road, robbed, and stalked. His computer skills let him do some hacking and other illegal computer-related things that lead him to information to help him find out who killed who.

Even though Jake was unemployed, with dwindling funds, he immediately went to help his sister. He was very kind, smart and generous to everyone. His lack of money didn't stop women being attracted to him, though. Jake clearly loved his dog so it didn't make sense that he fed him so poorly. McDonald's and beer was a daily diet for both Fred and Jake.

I enjoyed this mystery and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. ( )