Merry Jones - The Borrowed And Blue Murders

In the final days before Zoe's wedding to Detective Nick Stiles, a jogger turns up murdered on Zoe's back patio. Mick's brothers have come to the wedding and are staying at her home, and Zoe, now the mother of two-- six-year-old Molly and baby Luke-- finds evidence that at least one of her future brother-in-laws is not who he pretends to be.
When her babysitter has a breakdown, her wedding planner is attacked, and a psychotic former patient decides to come after Zoe and her family, Zoe is caught in an intricate web of intrigue and spiraling danger that threatens to destroy a lot more then just her wedding.

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The books description is very precise and I can't find anything to add to the plot that I find important enough to mention so I'd like to leave it as it is.
Zoe's life has been tumultuous ever since little Molly found a finger in the snow and the two got involved in the "missing nanny case", led my Detective Nick Stiles, her now soon to be husband.
It's not difficult to imagine that her walk to the aisle could run smoothly. Quite the opposite.
First she faces her growing family: Nick's brothers Sam and Tony, her for the time house guests, and the secretive brother Eli who didn't come but is caught by Zoe in the evening, rocking her baby in his arms and vanishing as silently as he entered the house.
Although she feels the brothers bond she has to stand up for herself to let them be a part of their talk about Eli and the investigations about the dead jogger, who turns out was a federal agent. For Zoe's character an impressing move to burst like she did. I really liked this part. Although her best friend Susan still says she lives in a bubble, she finally seems to mature a bit, giving her a new twist. Still her reactions to what's happening around her are slow.

Nick Stiles and his trust issues to open up to the women he loves become a huge bore and the author could definitely brush a little bit color into his character. Although Zoe is the main character of Merry Jones Books, he plays a huge role as well and he deserves more development. So far I found myself not really caring for him.

Molly is still Molly, the adopted child that has seen far too much violence in her short life and the question is how all this will impact this little girl that still plays like a child but carries a lot of wisdom and understanding of what's happening in her life.

The family grows and the reader, me, is sort of excited if Zoe Hayes, it wasn't mentioned if she's going to keep her last name, or Zoe Stiles, is in for a ride with a new, eccentric family full of unknown obstacles she's going to discover, that most certainly carry her into the next dangerous situation.

Rating:
Visit Merry Jones.

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur; 1st edition (September 16, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312356234
ISBN-13: 978-0312356231

Merry Jones - The Deadly Neighbors

In this third novel featuring art therapist Zoe Hayes, the neighbors are shocked when a woman's body is discovered in the kitchen of Zoe’s estranged father, Walter. In fact, they suspect Walter of killing her. But as Zoe investigates further, it seems that the neighbors are up to some pretty shocking shenanigans themselves.

As Zoe tries to prove her father’s innocence, she encounters a cruel ring of organized criminals who specialize in dark and deadly forms of entertainment. Trying to escape their grasp, Zoe—with her daughter, Molly, in tow—must solve a series of grisly murders, but in the process, stumbles into secrets that force her to reconnect with a lost and very frightening part of her own past….

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Zoe doesn't like to think about her childhood. Her memories surround her father and mother fighting because he'd had a serious gambling addiction which drove her mother to death when she was around six-year-old.
No wonder she hasn't had contact to her eighty-three-year-old father in over. When she receives a call from an anxious neighbor he wouldn't be well and needs someone to check on him she reluctantly agrees to go to his house with the thought to introduce his grandchild Molly at the same time.
Little did she know that when she and Molly finally enter the house through the basements door that she would find her father kneeling above a woman lying on the floor with a knife in his hands and the woman's throat slit.

From there on Zoe is constantly confronted with her childhood which seems to be blurred by images she can't understand. Her father cleared of being a murderer the neighborhood seems to be threatened from something the call the "gang" with little to no information's what this is about except that the dead woman wasn't the first victim. Dogs are killed in most violent ways just to be followed by their owner.

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Zoe doesn't seem to grow up in this novel. Endangering her child and the unborn child, not listening to her body when she's suffering from major contractions she get a bit annoying. She doesn't understand that her fiancée Nick Stiles is afraid for her and his unborn child well being. Her lack of self-confidence in her relationship with Nick gets a bad taste after having too much of it. She's behaving insensitive which took a lot of the reading fun I'd experienced with the first two novels and I'd seriously like to slap her.

Rating:
Visit Merry Jones.

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur; 1st edition (November 27, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312356218
ISBN-13: 978-0312356217

Merry Jones - The River Killings

Single mom Zoe Hayes has a knack for being in the wrong place at the worst time -like in the Schuylkill River late at night, clinging to a capsized sculling shell and surrounded by floating corpses.
In her second Philadelphia adventure, Zoe, a therapist, and Susan, her best friend, have taken up rowing for pleasure and exercise, but their boating mishap dumps them among the casualties of a human trafficking ring.

Homicide detective Nick Stiles, who now lives with Zoe and her six-year-old daughter, Molly, says he's on the case, but remains secretive, despite a break-in at their home and the carjacking of Susan's vehicle. As the bodies pile up, Zoe realizes the danger may be far closer than she previously imagined. While Jones keeps the plot zipping along at a fast pace, readers may occasionally cringe at Zoe's naïveté and the surfeit of coincidences. Those who enjoyed Zoe's first outing, however, should stick with her, as the best is probably yet to come.

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There isn't really much to add to the already known book description. It's been a while since I read the first book "The Nanny Murders" so I was glad to read some repetitions of Zoe's and Nick's past and why they fight with issues.
All in all the story isn't overly exciting or elaborate but very cozy as the character of Zoe is very likeable even with some flaws that leave the mystery reader almost speechless or uncomprehending. Sometimes it seems her little adopted girl has a more grown-up point of view then her adoptive mother.

And her stairmaster's still sulking with dust and disuse ! :-)

Rating:

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur (October 3, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312330413
ISBN-13: 978-0312330415