Murder to the Metal by Annie Hogsett is the second book in the “Somebody’s Bound to Wind Up Dead” mystery series. Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, coming June 5, 2018.

Mondo mega money is a murder magnet.
Ten months ago Allie Harper – smart, feisty, too broke to get her car fixed – rescued Thomas Bennington III – a hot, blind, college professor – from a crosswalk in her dicey Cleveland neighborhood. When Allie saved Tom and his groceries from traffic, she unwittingly retrieved his winning $550 million MondoMegaJackpot ticket. The payout steered the two of them into a wild dash from romance to mayhem and multiple murders.

Nothing’s changed. Sure, Allie and Tom now reside in a rented nine-thousand-square-foot lakeside mansion with a sky-lit shower and breathtakingly high-thread-count sheets. True, Otis Johnson, Allie’s deliverer from last summer’s would-be-kidnapper, is now their live-in bodyguard and gourmet chef. Yes, Allie’s dream of creating the T&A Detective Agency to solve “mysteries of the heart” by using Tom’s money, Otis’ P.I. credentials, and Allie’s intrepid. . .intrepidness. . . now has its first case.

That’s where the real trouble kicks in.
Lloyd Bunker’s obsession with avoiding stoplights has run him and his ’67 Pontiac GTO off the road, maybe for keeps. As they race to figure out what’s happened to Lloyd, T&A recruits Allie’s former nemesis, Officer Tony Valerio, plus her best friend and ex-landlady Margo and television reporter Lisa Cole, to help them follow a lethal trail of escalating crimes ranging from scrapping to pushing opioids to multiple murders. It’s no longer just about Lloyd.

An assault on the mansion’s high-tech security system by a talented hacker signals the presence of a formidable adversary, one with big bucks and a ruthless plan to destroy the lucky couple. As the action ramps up, Allie and Tom are plunged into a high-speed race against danger and death. . . It’s Murder to the Metal.

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I love a book that captures the essence of the portraying characters as they handle the tasks at hand as they circumvent the life that they are leading. Taking in their first case, Tom and Allie are confronted with the world of “Scrapping” and how it factors in the demise of their client’s boyfriend. Further prodding into the case put them in danger and it is the follow-through that makes this story intriguing. Trust, security, money, associates and BFF all play pivotal roles in the telling of this tale which had me gorging every word and action in this visually descriptive narrative that had me standing next to the team as they fought their way to place where they are comfortable. The author did a great job in setting up the mystery that kept me glued to the pages as I had to know what happened next. The outliers were plentiful and it was interesting trying to figure out who was the good versus bad. At one point, I held my breath because I did not want the bad guy to be the good guy. You’ll have to read this book to see how that turns out. This was another great book in a terrific series and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

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