Suspicion in Elvis Town

Suspicion in Elvis Town: A Ted Sherlock Cozy Mystery, Book 1

P.M. Mahoney

⭐️⭐️ 1/2

The book begins with the main character, Ted, being bullied as a child at a talent show where he and his step-father were performing as Elvis. This background information helps to explain Ted’s dislike of Elvis as an adult. Now grown up, Ted is a journalist sent to cover an Elvis festival in a small Australian town. Throughout the story, Ted is besieged with bad luck, the worst being a witness to a murder that no one believes happened. Fearing for his own wellbeing, he is eager to unmask the killer before he becomes the next victim. 

I was gifted this book and I’ve got to be honest, in was rough reading for me. First of all, most of the characters were hard to like. The main character, Ted, was whiny, self-absorbed and somewhat of a wuss. His coworkers were either bullies or jerks. The one character I did enjoy was Skye, who helped her dad run the caravan park. The premise itself was not bad, it just seemed as if the plot was all over the place and there were too many subplots. Also, every time Ted turned around, something bad happened and over the 290 pages, it got to be monotonous. There was a little bit of language and sexual innuendos (which is not necessarily bad, just a heads up for readers). The mystery itself had a clever plot twist at the end and I had to laugh when the author referred to a group of Elvis impersonators as “Elvii”. Bottom line, I found this book to be a bit sophomoric and one that I probably would not recommend to others.