Random Reads: Nearly Departed in Deadwood by Ann Charles

From Goodreads: Little girls are vanishing from Deadwood, South Dakota. Fearing her daughter might be next, single mom, Violet Parker, is desperate to find the monster behind the abductions. With her savings dwindling and just three weeks left to sell her first house or lose her Realtor job, Violet is ecstatic when a handsome jeweler hires her to sell his century-old, Victorian masterpiece, until she sees the dilapidated dwelling. Now, if she could just convince her only buyer to stop rejecting vintage homes as if they're haunted. Short on time and long on worry, she refuses to give up her dream of a fresh start in Deadwood. But with a malicious coworker trying to get her fired, a secret admirer sending her creepy messages, and a sexy stranger hiding skeletons in his closet, will Violet end up as one of Deadwood's dearly departed?

Nearly Departed in Deadwood is currently $.99 for Kindle at Amazon. I picked it up because I had gotten Optical Delusions in Deadwood and Dead Case in Deadwood as freebies (they are now at $2.99 and $3.99 respectively) but wanted to start at the beginning and didn't feel like $.99 was too much of a gamble, so that's why I'm including it in my "Random Reads" category. I read it recently because I'm hoping to visit this area during the summer and thought it would be fun to read a story set there.

I thought this was great! The characters are colorful and sometimes quirky, the story is interesting and keeps you guessing because all the suspects are behaving strangely, so I just couldn't decide for awhile who the baddie really was. There's a little bit of paranormal that figures into the climax, with a couple of hints at it before then. I expect we will be getting a little more of that as the series goes on, judging from what is revealed about one of the characters, but I don't want to give anything away. The covers are fun, I love the crossed out letters that change the title just a bit. I feel like this was a fantastic find that I made through the top 100 freebies on Amazon and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series!

Check out Ann Charles Website for more information!