Tragic because of what happened to his wife.
But now he’s starting over in Charleston. No brutal winters. No bullying despot of a boss. No staring down at stiffs on the mean streets of Beantown.
As he drives into Charleston behind the wheel of a U-Haul, taking in the sweet smells of Confederate Jasmine and gardenias, he gets a call. And before he can even unpack, he’s got a murder on his hands. A murder that could change the entire face of Charleston.
The Sexy Nerd's Review
I’m a huge fan of the Charlie Crawford series and was eager to delve into Turner’s newest detective drama series, Nick Janzek’s Charleston Mysteries, and I have to say I’m a little bit on the fence with this one as you will begin to understand as I lay out this review.
Nick Janzek hails from Boston and is about to move down south to Charleston to take on new scenery and a new job. Problem is, his U-Haul hasn’t gotten the road dust off it and his new boss calls him about a murder he needs him to get to pronto. Wow! I’m thinking I wasn’t aware that a detective would be pulled into a new case until he has filled out his paperwork and gone through some human resources red tape, but ok, cool, this is how Turner decided to spin this tale, I’ll bite.
Nick soon discovers that the Mayor of Charleston has been murdered and his chief wants his eyes and focus on this immediately. A gazillion questions began to run through his mind, but Nick handles himself like a pro detective would.
Once he gets himself settled in, he meets with his new partner, Delvin Rhett, who was described as a nerdy-type black guy that would put you in the mind of Erkel from Family Matters. Ok, I can roll with that. One thing to note here is there were many inconsistencies with Nick’s partner’s name. There were times he was referred to as Delvin and then other times he’s referred to as Rhett. Hmm, normally when people begin to form relationships, they establish names for each other immediately, and very rarely do they veer off from that. But Turner went with that flow and I followed along. Sometimes I thought Rhett and/or Delvin were two separate people only to remember, the detective’s name was Delvin Rhett.
Moving right along, the banter between ‘Rhett’, Nick and their chief got to be a little sticky for me, if you will. For one thing, something that I never experienced by Turner, and got an eye full were the racial undertones to this story. There were racial jokes. There were off-color comments. There were times Rhett would even make comments about his own race to the point it made me uncomfortable.
For example, in one section Rhett was giving Nick and his chief some intel about a lead he had and the chief makes a comment to Rhett like, “Can you speak English?” What Rhett said was complete English, but he used a few ‘slang’ words and I supposed this was his chief’s way of saying don’t sound so hood or street? Yet, other detectives used slang and he never once made comments about the way they spoke. This was a constant theme that continually grated on my nerves was the race card being produced entirely too much! If you removed the racial aspects of it, the story, by far, was a 5-star read. But it’s hard for me to give this story five stars when I got a whole bunch of racial undertones that kept angering me the more, I read. And it was extremely disappointing.
I’ve always enjoyed every book I’ve read by Turner and he just made me feel some type of way with this story. Every time I’d give him a pass for something that was said by his characters, I’d get to the next sentence or paragraph, and BAM, he’d slap me again with something very insensitive. I just didn’t get the angle or why it was done at all? What was the point to all of that? The race factor was too excessive and I could have done without all that. It had no place in this story at all, and if you read it, you’ll understand exactly what I mean!
Suffice it to say, Nerds, this is why I’m on the fence. The storyline was a bit amateurish, which was a bit surprising seeing as how well the Charlie Crawford series is written. I don’t know, Nerds? I’m at a loss here. This story didn’t give me the good-vibes feeling at all. And as I mentioned, I’m very disappointed in this story. Not at all what I was expecting. It is weird. That’s the best way I can describe it.
So, with that, the Sexy Nerd gives Killing Time in Charleston three more murders on its hands. Not my kind of read at all, and if this is how the series is going to continue to be handled, I will not be reading! Until next time, Nerds, open a book and get mind blown. Hell, I sure was with this one!
Open a Book and Get Mind Blown!
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