Publisher: The Wild Rose Press (April 8, 2024)
Category: Mystery/Suspense, Murder Mystery, Female Amateur Sleuth
Tour Dates April 22-May 30, 2024
ISBN: 978-1509254194
Available in Print and ebook, 312 pages
Description Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow
A Buddhist nun returns to her hometown and solves multiple murders while enduring her dysfunctional family.
Ivy Lutz leaves her life as a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka and returns home to northern California when her elderly mother suffers a stroke. Her sheltered life is blasted apart by a series of murders, which she attempts to solve with the help of a smitten detective.
She understands why someone might want to kill her stepfather, who it turns out to be is a smuggler on the run, but what about her mother? Is Ivy’s unstable sister right that she was murdered, too? Ivy struggles to live by her Buddhist principles and employ her mindfulness skills, and discovers they both hinder and help in her search for the truth.
Review Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow
Guest Review by Mark
“Minutes after my mother passed, I was back in Ivyville, the home of Ivy Lutz, the bad Buddhist.”
What a story, and what a writer! I’ve previously read one of Verlin Darrow’s stunning novels, ‘Murder for Liar,’ last year and I was so taken with it that I gave it a five-star rating.
Going into ‘The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth,’ I had a feeling that I was going to love it, because of my love for Darrow’s last novel. And boy was I right! Although the two novels could not be more different in terms of the story.
This novel is about a woman, Ivy Lutz, who leaves Sri Lanka where she is living as Buddhist nun to return to San Francisco to be by her mother’s bedside as the she passes away. The beginning of this story is so touching, as we seen Ivy’s mother die, that I found myself already tearing up only a few pages in. It is not often that a writer is so talented they are able to evoke emotion like that from me so early in the story! I rarly tear up, especially from a book. Fortunately, the humor of the book took over before long, and I found myself laughing, too.
The book takes a turn that will not be unexpected to longtime fans of the amateur sleuth genre, when Ivy discovers that her sister, Jan is under the impression that their mother was actually murdered. Of course, Ivy gets backed into investigating the case herself, as, according to Jan, she has a keen observational mind. Also, Jan believes that the police are not properly investigating.
Ivy has to tangle with the police herself as she ends up needing the help of a detective named Art, who she begins to bond with.
Ivy has to decide if she is ready to find out things about her mother’s life that the woman had kept hidden, and whether or not those things may have led to her death.
About Verlin Darrow
Award-winning novelist, Verlin Darrow is currently a psychotherapist who lives with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near Monterey Bay in northern California. They diagnose each other as necessary.
He is the author of Blood and Wisdom, Coattail Karma, Prodigy Quest, and Murder For Liar. Two of these won major book awards. Verlin is a former professional volleyball player, country-western singer/songwriter, import store owner, and assistant guru in a small, benign cult.
Before bowing to the need for higher education, a much younger Verlin ran a punch press in a sheet-metal factory, drove a taxi, worked as a night janitor, shoveled asphalt on a road crew, and installed wood floors. He barely missed being blown up by Mt. St. Helens, survived the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (8.0), and (so far) he’s successfully weathered his own internal disasters.
Website: https://www.verlindarrow.com/
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This giveaway is for 3 print or ebook copies. Print is open to the U.S. only. ebook is open worldwide. This giveaway ends on May 31, 2024 midnight, pacific time. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.
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