Death on Tour

Death on Tour

by Janice Hamrick

Texas high school teacher Jocelyn and her cousin Kyla have always been interested in Ancient Egypt, so when presented the opportunity to spend her spring break touring the Great Pyramids, Jocelyn isn't about to say no. She's not even going to let the death of one of her more annoying companions ruin her trip. But, when strange things keep happening to their group, Jocelyn begins to wonder if the trip was really worth it.

Unlike most cozy mysteries, this book begins with the murder on page one. For me, this was a definite turn-off. When reading mysteries, I like to have a chance to know my characters before someone dies.

I believe it was also possible that I knew the name of the victim before the name of the main character (although I have already returned the book to the library, so I cannot be certain). With such a large cast, I had a very difficult time remembering who was who and sometimes felt I knew everyone else's name better than the main character. While I understand that there were many people in the tour group, and it wouldn't feel realistic to have a small group, I think introducing them all in the first chapter was a little overwhelming. I would have liked to have only a few introduced at a time, and maybe referring to them by more than just their name at times would have probably helped.

As a result of the large, confusing cast, I had a very difficult time getting into the book. The first chapter was twenty-nine pages long (while other chapters were less than ten) and was not very engaging. However, I pushed myself to read through it and eventually found myself more engaged in the story. I managed to figure out the whodunit long before the main character although, as I said before, it was difficult to keep everyone straight. I did have a few characters that I didn't suspect but I couldn't figure out why they were acting strange. Everything was explained nicely at the end, perhaps a little too conveniently, although with this specific situation, I'm not exactly sure if there was another way to explain everything without create plot holes.

Overall, I liked the premise of the book, but thought it fell short a little on the execution. I would rate this story three quills and place it on my bottom shelf.