An Unhappy Medium

An Unhappy MediumAn Unhappy Medium
by Dawn Eastman
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780425282809
Series: A Family Fortune Mystery #4
Publication Date: April 5, 2016
Pages: 336
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Berkley

Psychic Clyde Fortune and her zany family are back in the fourth in the national bestselling series from the author of A Fright to the Death.

Former cop and novice psychic Clyde Fortune finds herself in a race for justice when a Zombie Fun Run turns deadly…

All of Crystal Haven, Michigan, is psyching up to participate in a Zombie Fun Run organized by Clyde’s nephew Seth, but Clyde is fretful about the undead festivities. For one thing, her sister, Grace, has unexpectedly returned to town after fifteen years. For another, Clyde has the nagging feeling that something is about to go wrong…

When one of the zombie runners is found murdered and then Grace disappears, Clyde realizes her grim premonition is dead-on. Now, she and her police detective boyfriend Mac must find a ghoulish murderer before someone points the finger at Grace. And when a tangled web of family secrets and old grudges combines with a mysterious case of stolen diamonds, even someone as quick-witted as Clyde might not be able to outrun a killer…


If a book can hold your attention when you’re in a slump, it can’t be half bad right?

I enjoy this series as it’s one of the few rational cozy series out there; most of the characters are likeable, the small town setting is vivid and the plotting is usually pretty good.  Clyde is a strong, normally intelligent main character trying to come to grips with a psychic gift she’s ignored most of her life and her family is just crazy enough to be realistic.  Mac is a great romantic lead who doesn’t define himself by his ability to alpha male everyone around him.

This book’s plotting, though, wasn’t quite as strong as the others.  I’m left with the impression that the mystery itself was just an excuse to further Clyde’s family’s story arc along.  To string the mystery out, the author made Clyde dim: her visions were fairly easy for the reader to interpret as events unfolded, but Clyde remained clueless and the final denouement revealed a culprit that was never a suspect either for anyone in the book or the reader as there simply wasn’t any forward progression after the initial murder scene.

I was going to ding the rating for this, but my rating reflects my enjoyment and I did enjoy this book; the character sub-story was interesting enough that I didn’t miss what was missing from the mystery itself.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.