A Good Day for Chardonnay

Our Review

New York Times bestselling author Darynda Jones brings her second mystery in the Sunshine Vicram series with laugh-out-loud lines, quirky characters, heartfelt connections, and a rampant mystery—make that mysteries—that will keep readers glued to the pages in A Good Day for Chardonnay.

Though this book does take over where book one ends, it’s enough of a stand-alone to be enjoyed on its own. Yet I’d recommend reading the first book to get to know the town and characters, particularly Sunshine and her family, better. 

The gang is back with all its New Mexico quirkiness. The town flasher, the fighting chicken, the old lady who confesses to every crime, and of course, Sheriff Sunshine Vicram and her team. The relationship between Sunshine and her teen daughter and parents is priceless, as is the friendship between her and Quinn, her deputy. These connections make the book a stellar read, in addition to the hilarious dialogue and banter throughout.

There’s a love interest in bad boy Levi, a murder charge still pending, the mystery of Sunshine’s missing days as a teenager, and now an escape artist of a raccoon in addition to a missing boy, presumed dead, who’s maybe not so dead, and a potential serial killer in town that Sunshine’s daughter has set her sights on.

Author Darynda Jones keeps her interweaving plots balanced nicely, and we get hints and depth of character revealed a little at a time. Then a lot at a time, and it’s all so well done you’re rooting for the characters before you know what you’re rooting for them to do!

The mysteries are well done and not obvious at all, the romance there yet not there, a wonderful addition to this story. Though I wouldn’t call this a cozy mystery (there is violence on the page as well as some steamy moments toward the end), I would say this is a funny, small town mystery with one heck of a sleuth—in both the sheriff and her daughter!

If you haven’t picked up a book by Darynda Jones before, I highly recommend this one and its predecessor, A BAD DAY FOR SUNSHINE.

Be prepared to laugh as you go along with Sunshine and solve murders while falling in love with the town.

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