review: ring around the rosy by jackie fullerton

Jackie Fullerton’s Ring Around the Rosy again follows law student Anne Marshall, who despite being on vacation, finds herself involved in yet another murder investigation. Just before Anne and her fiancé arrive at his parents’ house in Florida, Jason’s father discovers the body of a member of his wife’s book club. Although Jason (who comes across as a really big jerk in this book) insists Anne stay out of it, she can’t help but lend her knowledge (which partly comes from her deceased father who always shows up at just the right moments to help his daughter) to the detective on the case, especially when it becomes clear that the dead woman’s son and grandson are also in danger.

As with Fullerton’s previous book, Revenge Served Cold, I found the plot interesting but the dialogue to be quite stilted. There was some improvement, but the awkward formality remained in many instances. It wouldn’t be so noticeable if not for the fact that most of the story is dialogue. It was hard to get a feeling for any of the characters because of how formal all of them were with each other. 3/5

Review copy provided by The Cadence Group.