Book Review: The Scent of Murder by Kylie Logan

The Scent of Murder
Author: Kylie Logan
Series: A Jazz Ramsey Mystery (Book 1)
Publication: Minotaur Books (May 7, 2019)

Description: First in a new series from national bestselling author Kylie Logan, The Scent of Murder is a riveting mystery following Jazz Ramsey as she trains cadaver dogs.

The way Jazz Ramsey figures it, life is pretty good. She owns her own home in one of Cleveland’s most diverse, artsy, and interesting neighborhoods. She has a job she likes as an administrative assistant at an all-girls school, and a volunteer interest she’s passionate about—Jazz is a cadaver dog handler.

Jazz is working with Luther, a cadaver dog in training. Luther is still learning cadaver work, so Jazz is putting him through his paces at an abandoned building that will soon be turned into pricey condos. When Luther signals a find, Jazz is stunned to see the body of a young woman who is dressed in black and wearing the kind of make-up and jewelry Jazz used to see on the Goth kids back in high school.

She’s even more shocked when she realizes that beneath the tattoos and the piercings and all that pale make up is a familiar face.

The lead detective on the case is an old lover, and the murdered woman is a former student. Jazz finds herself sucked into the case, obsessed with learning the truth.

My Thoughts: This book introduces Jazz Ramsey who is the daughter of a fireman who died while fighting a fire and who is a dog trainer like her father. Jazz lost her father and her cadaver dog within a short time of each other. She's happy in her work as an administrative assistant at a private girls' school in Cleveland. 

When she takes a friend's dog for training at an abandoned building that will soon be redeveloped, she is surprised when the dog finds a body instead of the evidence she hid. She's even more surprised to recognize the young woman under the bizarre horror makeup as a former student at the school where she works.

She begins asking questions to try to find out how the young woman - Florie Allen - died and who killed her. Her questioning does have her running into her former boyfriend who is a homicide cop. Their relationship fell apart because they just didn't seem to have time for each other and not because they didn't love each other. 

As Jazz investigates, she learns about a lot of secrets Florie was keeping. There are a variety of people who might have wanted her dead from a high school rival to any of the people that she was blackmailing.

I enjoyed the story and liked Jazz. I learned a lot about cadaver dogs and the people who train them. 

Favorite Quote:

In an effort to convince herself that maybe finding Florie's body wasn't all that different from training a dog to search for the bits and pieces of people who donated their bodies to science, she sat up and sat back and did her best to look and sound confident.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.