Asking For Murder: An Advice Column Mystery

"Asking for Murder" is a nicely written, well-plotted mystery. Rebecca is a complex character - a psychologist who is good at her job but with plenty of her own issues. One of the things I like best about her is that she doesn't have all the answers and often jumps to the wrong conclusions, which makes her a very realistic character. She is a loyal friend to Annabelle but she struggles with her relationship with her ex-husband and Meigs as well as a new relationship with a guy who might be too nice for her. The psychology aspects are well done (author Roberta Isleib is a clinical psychologist) and I found the sand play therapy fascinating. Rebecca also writes an advice column and Isleib deftly weaves the advice columns into the plot. The mystery is well plotted and readers will have a hard time figuring out who Annabelle's attacker is. There are some surprises that are nicely incorporated into the book and at the end I went back to a few spots to see how cleverly Isleib had worked them into the plot. While the book sounds like a cozy mystery, it is a bit too gritty at times to be called that (it reminds me a bit of Diane Mott Davidson's catering mysteries).