The Bequest by Nancy Boyarsky.

The Bequest is the 2nd mystery in the Nicole Graves series but it can be read as a standalone. This time Nicole goes to find a workmate who is missing and finds him murdered in his home. Later she finds out there was a bequest in his will leaving everything to her. Nicole was not a close friend to this workmate and does not know why he was murdered or why he left all his wealth to her.

I enjoyed reading The Bequest because of the writing style Nancy employs. The Bequest has one very strong focus, it is Nicole. Everything is about Nicole and how she interacts with the world around her. This whole tale is told solely from Nicole’s point of view. Although Nicole is a young female, Nancy writes her tale with such skill that the reader takes on the personality of Nicole and walks in her shoes. It was simply a pleasure to enjoy this novel as though I was actually Nicole searching around Los Angeles looking for answers in this mystery.

I enjoyed the plot of The Bequest and all along I was wondering if Nicole should trust this or that character who may not be telling the whole truth. The story really played along with the issues of trust, that can so easily be taken for granted. Just as in the first novel, there was some romance along the way. Yes, Nicole did make love with this character but there is no gritty, steamy sex scenes to read through. There was no sexual tension in this novel but there was plenty of warm, romantic emotional feelings along the way.

So piece by piece Nicole got to the bottom of this mystery. Nicole travels around Los Angeles in her search for the truth and Nancy, as a local, put all those lovely details into her story. I have NEVER been to America but I loved how Nancy described Los Angeles and the surrounding area. This gave so much added value to her novel. Of course, a novel set in America written by an American, can miss the spot with some readers in other English speaking countries. I had no difficulty at all reading this book with its American cultures etc - I simply enjoyed being in Nicole’s shoes as she solved the mystery. There was just the one word though - “busboy” - what is that? I am familiar with “bus spotter”, those guys in the UK who take photographs of buses and coaches but have never come across a “busboy”. A quick check on the internet brought up this North American term.

I enjoyed The Bequest and liked how it played around with the dynamics of the workplace. Even when workmates are simply polite and tolerate each other, sometimes things are not said but one worker may be blissfully obsessed with another and their affections are taken silently to their grave.

So I find that Nancy has done it again and has written another OUTSTANDING read that gets the top score of 5 stars from me.