I Lost My Nose...In A Good Book

Small Town Spin by LynDee Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of **Small Town Spin** by LynDee Walker from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Her name is Nichelle Clarke. She's got a toy Pomeranian named Darcy, and she suffers from Spring allergies. In fact, anyone else who got plagued by allergies the way Nichelle does, would take to her bed and tune out the rest of the world until the allergy season ended. But that's not how Nichelle handles anything. She's full speed ahead until her obligations are met or until she ends up in an ER. She's that committed to her job and her life responsibilities.

She works as a columnist at the Richmond *Telegraph*, and she's very good at what she does in spite of the fact that at least one other person on the newspaper staff wants Nichelle's job badly enough to play any dirty trick necessary to give herself an edge. Fortunately, Nichelle is aware of this as is her boss. The editor of the newspaper, however, is another story.

On a day Nichelle is bothered most by her allergy problem and actually considers taking a sick day, she gets a call from a colleague and friend of hers, Grant Parker, a sports columnist. Grant needs a favor, and the only person he trusts enough to ask to do him this favor is Nichelle. He needs someone who has objectivity and common sense in mind when writing about big stories that could be turned into a media nightmare. He believes Nichelle has the sensitivity to do her job while also doing her best to see to it that it doesn't turn into a MSM debacle. It seems that Tony Okerson Junior is dead, and the cause of death as far as local law enforcement is concerned is suicide. Parker is a close friend of Okerson's family, and he wants this news story handled delicately especially since no one close to Tony Junior believes he would have killed himself.

What makes this story full of the prospect of sensationalism is that Tony Junior's father is a famous football player. He's been the 3 time winner of the Super Bowl as Quarterback, and his son had the ability to follow in his father's footsteps if he chose to do that. He was a natural athlete.

In spite of her allergy problems, Nichelle cannot say no to this request from her friend to do the story he doesn't feel he is able to do himself because of how close he is to the whole Okerson family. The first thing she has to do is visit the family to get information she can use in the article she will be writing on this tragedy. That is not an assignment she is looking forward to. She also needs to speak with local law enforcement to find out why they are so sure Tony Junior killed himself.

As the story continues, Nichelle begins to have suspicions of her own about what happened to Tony Junior, and it has nothing to do with suicide. She realizes she cannot get to the bottom of this story by herself, and that's when we find out about Joey and Kyle, the two men in Nichelle's life. It didn't take me long to decide which one I wanted Nichelle to choose and which one to dump. Now all I have to do is wait for more books to find out which one gets Nichelle for himself. Which means that LynDee Walker has got some plotting and publishing to do in the near future!

There are many things I liked about this mystery. First, I knew I would not be disappointed when I saw that it was published by Henery Press. They always have such unique and classy covers for their books which makes it easy to spot one of their authors. I liked that in spite of having a highly competitive job, Nichelle sees no reason to try to compete by wearing business suits and assuming an androgynous character. She's a woman who is quite comfortable being a woman, and I love it that her weak spot is designer shoes. She's smart and creative, but she's also prone to take on a little more than she can handle. Just like most women with whom I've formed a connection over the years. I have not read the two books that came before **Small Town Spin**, but I definitely plan to catch up on what I've missed. I want to see if Shelby Taylor finally gets put in her place. I'd also like to see if Rick Anderson ever gets a clue about what is going on in his newsroom. And then there's the Big Hunk-out... Who will end up with Nichelle? Is it going to be Joey or Kyle OR maybe someone new? Only LynDee Walker knows for sure; the rest of us will just have to be content to wait for the next installment. I'm reserving my spot at the front of the line with readers in place and ready to go!


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