Bad Karma

It’s a good thing Zoey decided to move into her Uncle Felix’s home when he was killed. The cops in Hope Harbor are so weak, it should be called Hopeless Harbor. Armed with her computer skills and accompanied by Karma the cat and her neighbor’s cadaver dog she weaves her way through a very good tale as she does the work law enforcement just can’t seem to handle in chasing a serial killer.

Freelance information professional Zoey Callaway moves to Hope Harbor when she inherits her uncle’s house and begins to investigate his sudden – and for her, suspicious - death.

Zoey finds Uncle Felix’s files hidden on a USB drive about three missing girls they discussed on her last visit with him. Then she locates a letter from her uncle asking for her help with the latest missing girl – Lacey Daniels, advises her: to be careful, trust local cop Jax Cooper, learn how to use a gun, and that if she is reading this, he is probably dead or missing.

A new project involves Zoey researching the local witch cemetery by identifying the people buried and find out anything about them. Jason Brock, a Historical Society board member with interest in the project, offers to help.

In the meantime, Zoey comes home to find a gift-wrapped package that Karma, her cat, is “pawing and mewing at incessantly.” Inside, underneath layers of white tissue, is a dead sparrow. Other threatening incidents follow as Zoey uncovers clues about the missing girls and Lacey Daniels’ location.

Debi Chestnut creates a compelling character in Zoey Callaway: a strong female who thinks for herself. At the same time, she enjoys a warm relationship with Karma, the kitten her uncle adopted just before his death. Ms. Chestnut fabricates a riveting mystery with well-developed characters, appropriate twists & red herrings and delivers it all at a steady pace. Bad Karma, a captivating and memorable debut.

I try to read and review Netgalley books asap, and in the order that they were offered to me - but I will have to let Bad Karma jump the line - my husband laughed all the way through it.

As did I. Debi Chestnut writes a delicious 'cozy', with feisty cats and handsome dogs and good looking good guys - or are they? We know they look great... I received a free electronic ARC of this novel on December 2, 2020, from Netgalley, Debi Chestnut, and BooksGoSocial. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.

ZOEY CALLAWAY, an introverted Information Professional, is resigned to living in the cramped apartment above her mother’s garage. She has a job that she loves and is surrounded by her precious collection of first edition books.

When Zoey is notified that her beloved uncle has been found dead in his bathtub, the police tell her they feel it's an accidental overdose of sleeping pills.

Meanwhile, young women are disappearing from the area. They all have the same look .. long blonde hair, blue eyes .. and there's been nothing to help identify the abductor.

Moving into her uncle's home and taking care of his cat, she finds a ton of information concerning these missing women. Was he getting close to identifying the abductor ... is this why he was killed?

It gets interesting ... and dangerous ... when she gains a stalker ... someone who wants her to back off her investigation. ... he has left notes, text messages, and had made it perfectly clear that he knows exactly where she is at all times.

This is an entertaining mystery, a short read of less than 200 pages, filled with a few twists and turns along the way. I really enjoyed the character of Zoey, she and the other major characters are deftly drawn. No cliff clinger ... but I'm hoping to see more of Zoey in the future.

Many thanks to the author / BooksGoSocial / Netgalley for the digital copy of this mystery cozy. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Zoey Callaway's Uncle Felix has been murdered but managed to post her a flash drive before he died. She's inherited his house so moves in to investigate his death and the missing girls on the USB. She's armed with a letter from Felix about who she can trust. It's down to Zoey to work it all out.

I really enjoyed this 'whodunnit'. I didn't work it out and had quite a good twist. It was quite the page turner once the detection process started. It's a shorter story than I normally read and it left me wanting more. It's part of a series so I am looking forward to reading more from this author. Excellent first book.

Really enjoyed this book. It was gripping and the story and plot was well written. Kept me hooked til the end



Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased review

Good mystery! The murders stack up and the guilty party is a surprise. I liked the twists and turns in the story. I enjoyed the book.

I received this book through "NetGalley".

When I first began reading the book, I didn't know what to expect. The story begins with Zoey doing her normal morning run when she receives a call from a detective notifying her that her uncle is dead. Zoey returns to apartment and then packs to go to her uncle's house. The initial cause of death was described as "accidental".

Zoey learns that she is the sole recipient of her uncle's will. She decides that she was going to remain there and continue with her work. She is a person her deals with investigation type activities using the computer. When she was gathering her belongings from her apartment, she received a package from her uncle. After a short time, she opened it and discovered a flash drive with files. Her uncle had been looking into the disappearance of missing teenage girls. Zoey also received a request from the historical society to look look into a cemetery where witches were supposedly buried. While doing work at the cemetery, she discovered the body of one of the missing teenage girls.

As she continued her research she also began looking into the cases after another teenage girl disappeared. As she looked into the cases helping the police, she also started receiving text messages from a stranger. She made a list of suspects, and one of them across the street from her. As time went by, and she got closer to discovering the individual responsible, she was abducted by that person.

To learn who the individual responsible and how this all got resolved, you must read this book. You won't be disappointed.

Bad Karma was such a good read, I absolutely loved every single second of this book.

It was so fast paced which I really enjoyed and from the very first page it felt like we hit the ground running and this pace continued the entire way through the book. The book never dipped or became boring, it just kept us on this crazy ride.

The book itself focuses on Zoey, who I loved as a character, and follows her through her need to find out who killed her Uncle and she eventually gets mixed up in a number of crimes that are rocking this small town...

Zoey herself was a really interesting character, everything from her job to how she handled herself to how she clearly had an emotional interest in the criminal cases, despite not knowing the victims or their families. She was everything I would want from a strong female lead.

There were several different layers to this story, but they were woven together really cleverly and nothing was revealed until the author wanted it to be. Because of this I felt Bad Karma was a really addictive read, I needed to know what was going on and I just couldn't put it down.

The plot itself was fairly simple but was brought to life by the authors writing and how she described the surroundings and the spaces we were in. For me, this enhanced the book and even enhanced the plot and made it feel more real to me. There were points that I had goosebumps reading this book because of the way the author wrote about or described a situation - so I was really impressed.

Right up until the ending of this book I absolutely loved it! But sadly, the ending did a feel like a bit of a let down after such a brilliant book, it disappointed me.

That being said, I can't criticise the other 200 odd pages of this book, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely read any further books in the Zoey Callaway series!

Bad Karma is the first book in a new PI procedural by Debi Chestnut. Released 20th Dec 2020, it's 208 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is an engaging, fast paced, well written PI/amateur procedural with a young female protagonist who is looking into the sudden death of her uncle, also a PI. A package in the mail with a letter from her uncle along with a USB drive seals the deal, and she's determined to get to the bottom of the case.

It's a good (very fast) read, but... I found the dialogue uneven. There are some characters (her mother for example) who are simply toxic and 100% annoying. I could understand her mother being distant and/or manipulative. She's straight-up abusive and it didn't work for me within the context of everything else about the protagonist, Zoey, being competent, intelligent, and moderately badass. The small-town police being as utterly incompetent as they are also didn't really work for me. They were *hopeless* and unprofessional. There's also a subplot which seemed to foreshadow some light paranormal content in future installments and it felt separate from the style of the rest of the book, which is very realistic and not paranormal at all.

Four stars. It will be interesting to see where the author goes with future plots and how the characters develop. The language is clean (a few "damn"s, nothing worse) and no graphic sexual content.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Loved this read! Couldn't put it down and decided to read it all in one sitting, definatly did not disapoint! Thankyou author!

this was a great start to a mystery series, I enjoyed getting to know Zoey and going through this mystery. I enjoyed going through this story and look forward to more from the author and this series.