What Doesn’t Kill You is Aimee Hix’s debut novel. She now has a second out in the same series (Willa Pennington, PI Mysteries), Dark Streets, Cold Suburbs, which I am eager to read. If you like strong female protagonists in detective/mystery series such as Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski or Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, you’ll enjoy Hix’s Willa Pennington.
Willa Pennington has retired from the police department in her late twenties to apprentice with her father as a private investigator. A neighbor asks her to help their daughter move from the apartment she shares with her abusive boyfriend. Willa arrives just in time to find no daughter, just the boyfriend’s body.
This is a lovely debut novel. Hix has impeccable timing in her plotting and manages to keep all the plot balls juggling until the reveal—all while blending cozy mystery domesticity (scenes with Willa’s family add to this ambiance) and noir. Hot/cold scenes with Seth, a one-night stand/old friend who’s reentered her life provide a sizzle of sex appeal and add to the twists and turns of the plot. The reader can look forward to great characterization, a tense storyline, and a first novel that provides a solid underpinning to the sequels to come.
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What Doesn’t Kill You and Dark Streets, Cold Suburbs are available through:
