Review of Truth Or Dare

Truth or Dare

Resort At Castaway Bay, Book 1

Kathi Daley

5 Stars

Synopsis:

Sydney Whitmore, a forensic psychologist living in San Francisco, moves home to Shipwreck Island, and the resort owned and operated by her family, after tragedy strikes leaving her struggling for a way to make sense of things. After finding out about the assault of an old friend, which has left him comatose, she renews her relationship with Ezra Reinhold, a reclusive billionaire who enjoys poking around in cold cases and has the means to hire the best people to find the answers no one else has been able to.

In book 1 in the series a group of ten high school students go camping but only eight return. The statements those who’ve made their way back have told to Sheriff Sam Stone are so different as to be completely useless. Syd has experience getting the truth out of people so she agrees to help Sam weed though the witness statements to find the truth both are certain exists beneath the lies. Meanwhile Syd’s middle sister Emily has started a new lifestyle blog, her youngest sister Rory is fostering kittens, and Syd renews her relationship with Kelly Green, an FBI analyst she first met while working for the FBI on the East Coast.

Bonus Material: Text and photos for Emily by the Sea and Emily’s Kitchen contributed by Christy Turner  

Review:  

The characters are well rounded and well developed.  Sydney and her sisters are all together for their Aunt Charlie’s birthday.  Sydney also has to work through a tragic situation with her last job, where one of her best friends was killed.  She is taking a break but her boss asks her to look into missing teenagers.  What happened the night the teens disappeared is something that her and her friend, Kelly, will have to try and figure out.  They also have to try and figure out what happened to one of Sydney’s friends who was attacked and is now in a coma.  That is a lot to work on while she is on vacation.  I enjoyed getting to meet all of the characters and see how they all interact with each other.

The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and these descriptions helped pull me into the story from the very beginning.  I could picture Castaway Bay in my mind’s eye and all of the action taking place.  The mystery was well plotted and there were enough suspects to consider and clues to sift through.  

This is a good start to a new series and I am looking forward to finding out what other mysteries Sydney has to solve.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery.