The Scent of Murder by Kylie Logan is the first book in the NEW “Jazz Ramsey” traditional mystery series. Publisher: Minotaur Books, coming May 7, 2019.

First in a new series from national bestselling author Kylie Logan, The Scent of Murder is a riveting mystery following Jazz Ramsey as she trains cadaver dogs.

The way Jazz Ramsey figures it, life is pretty good. She 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.

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We are introduced to Jazz Ramsey whose side job is training cadaver dogs. While on a training session, instead of finding what was hidden, the dog instead finds a body. A body of someone Jazz knew which leads her looking for answers.

This book immediately grabbed my attention, quickly becoming a page turner. The writing style and tone was evenly matched with the pacing making it easy to follow along with what was happening on the pages. I like how this drama was told with a well-defined mystery giving me the right amount of tension to keep me intrigued. Despite the small pool of suspects, there was plenty of clues left to be discovered and I had an idea of who the killer was and it was fun watching it all play out. There was a point when the author changed direction, but I held onto my belief in the killer’s identity.

The narrative was visually descriptive, keeping me engaged in all aspects from the scenery to the interactions between Jazz and those that crossed her path and to the dialogue that kept me abreast of what was going on. As the story advanced, the author provided a backstory that illustrated how the main characters came to be, which sets the stage for the pivotal roles they had in the telling of this tale. A terrific start and I look forward to the next book in this new series.

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FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.