The Scent of Murder by Kylie Logan (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"The way Jazz Ramsey figures it, life is pretty good. She’s thirty-five years old and owns her own home in one of Cleveland’s most diverse, artsy, and interesting neighborhoods. She has a job she likes as an administrative assistant at an all-girls school, and a volunteer interest she’s passionate about—Jazz is a cadaver dog handler.

Jazz is working with Luther, a cadaver dog in training. Luther is still learning cadaver work, so Jazz is putting him through his paces at an abandoned building that will soon be turned into pricey condos. When Luther signals a find, Jazz is stunned to see the body of a young woman who is dressed in black and wearing the kind of make-up and jewelry that Jazz used to see on the Goth kids back in high school.

She’s even more shocked when she realizes that beneath the tattoos and the piercings and all that pale make up is a familiar face.

The lead detective on the case is an old lover, and the murdered woman is an old student. Jazz finds herself sucked into the case, obsessed with learning the truth."

My Thoughts:

I'm always, always on the lookout for new cozy mystery series to follow!  I jumped at the chance to read this one, but especially after I realized that it began a new series.  Sometimes it feels like the only cozy mysteries I hear about are books that are part of long established series so I was super excited to hear about this one.  What I really enjoyed about this book was the premise.  Jazz is just working on training a cadaver dog when she and the dog accidentally stumble across a real body.  And because she has found this body and knows of the girl, she feels drawn to figuring out what happened to her.  This made sense to me and it felt reasonable as to why Jazz kept asking questions and trying to solve the murder.  I liked that part of it because sometimes it doesn't make sense why a person would keep getting involved in murder investigations in books like this.  Instead, I wanted Jazz to ask questions and figure out who was responsible for the girl's murder.  I also was really intrigued by some of the back story that the author alluded to.  For instance, Jazz's father was the fire chief and has recently died in a fire.  There is some (for lack of better words here) curious circumstances relating to his death that has me intrigued.  Is there more to it?  Will we learn more in upcoming books in this series?  I'm looking forward to finding out!  I also really enjoyed the parts that focused on the training of the cadaver dogs.  I actually would have loved even more of that because it was just so interesting to read about!  

Overall, I enjoyed this one for the most part.  It definitely felt like it was setting up more to come which sometimes happens with first books in a series.  I'm intrigued enough though that I'm anxious to get my hands on the next book when it releases.  The author did a good job of setting up characters that I'm eager to see more of.  The mystery portion kept me guessing especially because the victim's motivations were a bit of a mystery.  She wasn't portrayed as this perfect character but I found myself wanting Jazz to find her justice despite all of that.  It was just an interesting beginning to a new cozy mystery series and I'm left excited about it.  I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of trouble Jazz gets herself into next and if it relates to her father's death.  I would recommend this one to fans of cozy mysteries and suspense.

Bottom Line:  A good beginning to this new cozy mystery series - I look forward to reading more in this series in the future!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.  Thoughts are my own.