4 out of 4 stars
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The novel Toxic Side Effect by Sandy Magner is a crime thriller about the life of Jennifer Burns and her plight to uncover the truth about her father’s death. This novel is the sequel to Pocket Dial.
The book starts with a phone call from Jennifer’s mother to inform her that her father is dying and he is on his way by ambulance to the hospital. Jennifer soon learns that her father has been poisoned and her mother is the number one suspect. Jennifer knows she must find the person responsible for his death and exonerate her mother. What Jennifer soon finds out is that her father had more than one secret he had been hiding for decades and the investigation into his death will reveal the shocking double life her father led.
The book is about a very dark subject but is written in a very light-hearted way. The characters in the book are so much fun and the author does a great job of making all of the characters likable and real. Jennifer and her best friend, Kat, really have doubts about the innocence of Jennifer’s mother, and the author does a great job of making this a funny dialogue between the two women. They both agree that she definitely had motive after 20 years of her husband’s infidelity. Jennifer and Kat are both hilarious as they come up with different schemes to unmask the true killer. I found myself laughing out loud several times throughout the book.
I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. I felt like this was a great book that was very well-written with very few errors. The ending has a great plot twist that I didn’t see coming and it made the book even stronger. The only thing I really didn’t like about the book was I thought Jennifer’s level of involvement in the official police investigation seemed very unlikely. If she were just investigating everything on her own and the police weren’t actually asking her to help with the investigation, it would have been more believable.
In summary, I think the book would appeal to readers who are looking for a light and fun book that is not overly complex. The story is about family secrets, infidelity, murder and also has lots of good humor throughout. The characters keep the story moving and it’s one of those books once you start reading you can’t put it down. I also plan to go back and read the prequel to this book Pocket Dial because it will shed more light on Jennifer’s personality.
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Toxic Side Effect
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