The Book:
Derailed by Mary Keliikoa
Published May 12th 2020 by Epicenter Press
Date read: July 7, 2021
The Characters:
PI Kelly Pruett
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
A dying wish. A secret world.
Can this grieving investigator stay on the right track?
PI Kelly Pruett is determined to make it on her own. And juggling clients at her late father’s detective agency, a controlling ex, and caring for a deaf daughter was never going to be easy. So she takes it as a good sign when a letter left by her dad ties into an unsolved case of a young woman struck by a train.
Hunting down the one person who can prove the mysterious death was not just a drunken accident, Kelly discovers this witness is in no condition to talk. And the closer she gets to the truth the longer her list of sleazy suspects with murderous motives grows. Each clue exposes another layer of the victim’s steamy double life.
On a crash course with a killer, she must piece together the puzzle of what really happened to the victim that rainy night, before her own fate is sealed and she loses everything near and dear, including her life.
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The Twist:
Hannah was Kelly’s half-sister–Kelly’s father had had an affair with Georgette.
Brooke was an escort for her accounting firm. She also had a BDSM master/slave relationship with Derek in which she “owned” him. Derek was Rachel’s sister. Rachel had killed Brooke when she refused to let Derek leave the relationship. She got Nightengale to lie for her and killed him when he threatened to come clean.
The Ending:
Kelly confronted Rachel and was almost killed.
The Review:
In this debut novel, we meet Kelly Pruett, a recently divorced PI that took over her father’s practice after his death.
The case was interesting, and I enjoyed Kelly’s method of attacking the problem.
Along the way Kelly learns some interesting things about her family background, and I’m interested to see where that new relationship takes her. I’m also interested to see what will happen with her home life–will she get back together with her ex husband, or will things develop further with her “friend” Kyle?
Overall, I loved how fast the pace of this book was. Short chapters kept my interest and made the book pass quickly, and there were no boring scenes. I’m interested to see where Kelly goes next! I’ll be jumping to Denied right away.
