A Killer's Guide to Good Works by Shelley Costa: This mystery’s use of the relic and dead monk had me thinking one way, but it went another; it was more cozy than art heist. A good read.

A great mystery with interesting characters!! I love the friendship and international intrigue.

I had enjoyed reading Ms. Costa’s first book in this series, which had many lighthearted moments. I thought that this book would be in the same vein. Turns out that it is much more serious with lots of dark overtones.

I enjoyed it equally as well but hope that some spark of humor returns to the series with the next book. Val can be such a fun sleuth that it would be a shame not to highlight that in the future.

In this book, there is a secret group that is busy finding and stealing religious relics. When someone close to Val is murdered, she becomes involved in finding out whodunnit. She also draws close to her best friend’s brother, Bale, a monk who has come to New York to assist her.

There are lots of twists and turns and, for me, a surprise ending. Even beyond the end, there are more twists and turns. All in all, it was a good mystery read. So little relied on the first book, I don’t think anyone would have problems in reading this book stand-alone. However, if you want a lighter read by the same author, I highly recommend the first in the series, “A Killer’s Guide to Cold Climates”.

I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31112330-a-killer-s-guide-to-good-works" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="A Killer's Guide to Good Works (A Val Cameron Mystery, #2)" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1468414966m/31112330.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31112330-a-killer-s-guide-to-good-works">A Killer's Guide to Good Works</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4327702.Shelley_Costa">Shelley Costa</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1904058021">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Honestly, by the time I got around to trying to write a review of this (which would be just now), I had to stop for a minute. I couldn't remember a thing. It all came back after a second; there was the instant I thought "I only gave this three stars?", followed closely by the one in which I thought "Oh, right. Yes. Three."<br /><br />It had its moments. I liked the main character, Valjean Cameron. I liked her friend Adrian (despite the fact that I kept confusing her with her brother Anthony; "Adrian" is usually the masculine spelling) and her aunt Greta, and the sharp young girl she encounters in pursuing answers. I wasn't as enamored with Anthony Bale, perhaps because my entire Catholic background rose up in protest of his choice of lifestyle and choice of cover story. <br /><br />That was actually a major drawback to the book for me. I found it repulsive that a man who might at any time be called upon to perform acts upon which any church would frown, and who apparently has (or has had) a string of bed-warmers, who openly states his agnosticism (if not atheism) – that such a man would think it was just fine to put on the robe of even a lay brother and pretend to be a man trying to be … good. I would think the hypocrisy would be hard for an intelligent man to live with, but apparently in this case it is not. It was, however, hard to read about, and I was completely unwilling to accept Bale as Val's new love interest.<br /><br />There are all kinds of comparisons to Dan Brown's exercises in earnest silliness, to the point that I'm a little shocked I would request this. And, while it's better written to a degree that is so large as to be almost immeasurable, there is an awful lot of common ground between That Book Which Shall Remain Nameless and this one. A secret Catholic society looking to change the world is just as silly when I like the main character and don't cringe at most of the writing as when I want to shoot the main character in the face and most of the writing makes me whimper softly. <br /><br />(It may be the fault of the ARC, but there were a handful of times when the writing did make me whimper, just a little – "Turning to face Bale, her sweater tugged across her breast", for example. Maybe these things will be fixed.)<br /><br />Also … why, exactly, does a member of a secret society (let me repeat: SECRET) get a tattoo of said society's symbol above his collarbone? Not inside his elbow, or under one breast, or on the back of his knee or someplace else most people would never see it – nope: in a place where it would often show above his neckline. <br /><br />So – it's better than That Other Book – but that's not a difficult achievement, after all. It falls somewhere in between it and <i>The Eight</i> – on the lower end of the scale, unfortunately. Disappointing.<br /><br />The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.

This was an enjoyable book to read. It took me a while to get into the book, and feel the characters and the mystery. I think there is an increase in books which have some connection to the Church. There is some sort of mystical aura associated mysteries that involve the Church or some element of the Church, be it an artifact or some fable. That is the premise of this book.

In a way, that made this book interesting, and also was the downfall for this book. The whole mystery in question was interesting and yet lacked the necessary mind chow to make it absorbing. I found that the only issue with the book was the fact that the core organization, the problem, the reason why the murder happened was not elaborated. Granted, I was very curious while the mystery unravelled. I wanted to know who killed Adrian, and why. But somehow, page after page went by without me getting some sort of a satisfactory response. And I wondered whether that was because I didn't know too much about the history or about the objects involved. But that was not the case. It wasn't me, it was the book. There was so little revealed about the backstory, and so much about finding the killer, that that element remained incomplete.

When I read the end, I didn't understand anything at all. Why?! Why did the book end so? What's the meaning of the whole book? I ended the book feeling uneasy that I'd just spent time reading a book only to not know why anything happened in the book in the first place. Having so many details but a weak premise is the let down of this book and that's what made me dock the 2 stars.

I really love mysteries and thrillers but this one was a let down in the end.