A Good Man Gone: A Cozy Mystery (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book 1)

I loved the characters and the setting. It had a plot twist near the end. This is a great story about a family, some retired officers, some active. Their community and love for each other is apparent as they solve a murder. It has clever dialog.

A very well written book. Great characters and a rip of an fmc. Engaging, entering and the perfect touches of humor.

My husband and I listened to this book on a long road trip. I wasn't sure he would enjoy a cozy mystery but he seemed to like it well enough. One thing about cozy mysteries is their relative simplicity and easy listening are easy to follow while focusing on driving. There was a lot to like about this book -- it was engaging and it wasn't so complicated you couldn't keep track of what was going on -- and there was plenty of humor. Granted, it wasn't always laugh-out-loud funny but there plenty of chuckles. But there were things that bugged me, too, such as Mercy's constant critiquing of the other characters. One uncle was a grump, one aunt was a domineering elderly nun; another aunt was obese and ate all the time; her dimwitted sidekick was slovenly and smelled. Even her doctor boyfriend smelled after work. I wondered if she had any people in her life she would consider normal. It also bothered me that she was always mentioning how she (and her mother) were always getting negative attention because of their beauty. In fact, if we heard it once we heard it twenty times that she looks like Marilyn Monroe. I'm not sure how that fact adds anything of consequence to the books in this series. (Is the author going out of their way to make a point that blonde bombshells can be smart?) I will listen to Book 2 but if Mercy is still picking apart the other characters and if there is more unnecessary mention of her beauty then I'm not sure I will listen to Book 3.

Some nice details and sense of place - then using many word count descriptions, it descents into female character’s repeated, obsessive descriptions of her perceived effect of her boobs. Her appearance becomes chief characterization. Tedious. Forced descriptions to make characters weird - then you don’t care who killed who…

So, I rate books based on their genre. This one being a fun cozy mystery - it’s well written, has a great pace, and the characters are developed. I look forward to the next in this series.

Good read. I can picture visually each character. OilAaron weirdThe girls -- :I want their story also!Food yummy.

Fun mystery, light hearted, easy reading. Perfect for a winter day. Loved the heroine, Mercy. Excited for the next story

With twists and turns, mysteries keep one on edge but remain one step ahead of the reader. Usually the dark and gloomy tone found in most mystery novels is enhanced by the tension augmented by characterization. A. W. Hartoin’s choice of subtle humor through his characters and descriptions revitalizes the mystery genre. Mercy Watts, although not a doctor and not the son her father probably expected, does maintain a role in the medical profession when she is not solving murders. Her resemblance to Marilyn Monroe also adds to the levity of plot. The aromas that accompany her side-kick, Aaron, those of “hotdogs, chili cheese fries, and some king of drugstore cologne,” help to make this an memorable pair of investigators. Along with Dr. Grace, who performs autopsies, "A Good Man Gone," introduces the reader to a series of characters that are engaging and lively. Hartoin’s juxtaposition of characters and plot provide the right amount of tension to keep a reader engaged. No small detail is ignored, such as when Mercy provides insight to the cats owned by her parents: “The Siamese weren’t there yowling at me, threatening to shred my ankles, so I ignored their bowls and went for the expresso machine.” In the middle of an investigation, this provides the comic relief needed.This is a read that will keep you entertained and riveted to your seats as the dogs beg to be walked and dinner clamors to be made!

I should confess up front that I haven't finished this book yet and I am struggling as it is serioulsy annoying. The idea of the gutsy femme fatale is not new and not necessarily always a bad thing, but Mercy is big snore. It is a shame as the crime and the way in which it is evolving shows promise. However, I am bored to tears hearing about her perfect mother and father, their wonderful life and how alluring Mercy is when viewed from every angle. She purports to be disinterested in these things whilst taking every opportunity to describe what she is wearing, the effect they have on men and every nook and cranny of the fabulous house in which her parents live. Her father is the best cop that ever lived, with a reputation to boot, even though he retired many moons ago and her mother can stop traffic, though of course, she doesn't ever try to.I'd like to comment more on the storyline, but I'm not sure I'm going to make it through

Mercy Watts is my kind of detective. She's sharp, quick-witted and gives as good as she gets. The fact that she is stunningly attractive is either a help or a hindrance depending on what she's doing and where she is at specific times throughout the book. When a close family friend dies in suspicious circumstances whilst her detective father is away on a cruise, Mercy has no alternative but to take on the investigation. The book is peopled with fascinating characters set in the atmospheric deep south of America. The fast paced action pulls the story along and I really enjoyed the conflict between Mercy's insistence on her need for independence with her inability to stay away from her childhood home and the relatives she loves despite herself. She is refreshingly human in her reactions to death and its far-reaching effects. Unlike her female counterparts in other detective books, when she is hit, she stays down and any injuries she sustains are handled in a realistic way and receive the appropriate medical attention. Her love life is pleasingly chaotic and whilst the background stories tend to take precedence over the actual murder investigation, I think it was this aspect of the story that I found the most enjoyable. I will definitely look out for more books in this series.

This is, as another reviewer has pointed out, a chick-lit whodunnit, intended to entertain. It isn't great literature, but it is very entertaining, moves at a good pace and enables one in fantasy to enter a very different world from one's own. Mercy Watts is the daughter of a homicide detective with influential and wealthy friends. She and her mother are Marilyn Monroe lookalikes, which I'd have said was a great advantage in life but which does create a few problems in terms of being taken seriously and also because of male lust and female jealousy. However, Mercy is unimpressed by her appearance and takes a tough and pragmatic approach to life. When her father is taken ill, she conducts an investigation on his behalf, hindered at every point by her loving parents. The plot moves at a good pace, the characters are vivid and colourful and the denouement not too predictable. The book leaves a few loose ends which I suppose are taken up in the second novel in the series. Good fun.

This is the first book in the Mercy Watts series. I downloaded the book as a freebie and I had brought the audio book before I had even finished reading it(oh and the second book).Mercy is not you average anything, looks ... imagine Marylyn Monroe, Job... nurse (instead of your normal P.I, or detective) , which all adds to the fun as she doesn't want either she just want to be normal and have a enough money to pay the rent, and spend time with her boyfriend (who as a Dr is always on call) but with family, sneaky senior citizens and a murder nothing is ever easy.

Nothing offensive here, slightly odd characterisations ie both "Mercy" and her mother are Marilyn Munroe look-a-likes with men constantly lusting over them and people (both men and women) stopping in their tracks when they see them - really ?!? Despite this Mercy's regular Doctor boyfriend can barely find the time to spend with her and even when they do meet up he is constantly pre-occupied with his patients - just doesn't ring true. However putting that aside the story itself is entertaining and with no major typos and some of the other characters are just that real characters - very odd and often very funny.