A to Z Challenge 2013 ~ Q ~ QB1 by Pete Bowen

QB1

By: Pete Bowen

Amazon Summery:

Have terrorists killed the Superbowl Quarterback? Private investigator Tom Mullins and his 12 year old boy-genius next door neighbor are on the case in this story of a championship football season wrapped in a quirky, fast moving, whodunit. 

My Review:

I'm not always big on mysteries.  It's not usually an issue of how easy or hard the mystery is, but usually an issue of how it's written.  I get very tired of books that throw more and more red herrings into the story.  Some red herrings and false leads are fine, but changing it up EVERY page drives me crazy!
Fortunately this was not the case with QB1.  
While I figured out early on who was the responsible party for Tony Reilly, I was so off on the motive!  It was a nice surprise.
I liked Bowen's characters.  They aren't all perfect, but it's their flaws that made them more interesting.  I was a bit bothered by how much Tom curses and berates his main partner in crime solving.  After all Roger is ONLY 12, but the author does go into detail on their relationship and why they interact the way they do.  *shrug* I just know I would have an issue if someone spoke that way to my kid no matter what the circumstances.  But when you start seeing more of their interactions, Roger doesn't sound or act like your normal 12 year old, so....meh...it didn't bother my enjoyment of the book that much.
I also liked the way that Bowen tied his story together.  The story starts with Reilly's murder and then goes back in time a few months before.  Throughout the novel he also throws in scenes of Reilly's life and the games in the year leading up to his death.  They show why he was such a good quarterback and how he became so famous in such a short time.
There were sections that my eyes kinda glazed over.  They were only the parts that went into details on the games and how they were played.  I'm not a big football fan so even rereading the information didn't make it anymore understandable.  The author definitely sounded like he knew what he was talking about, again I'm not even an amateur, much less an expert, so it was nice to see that he put so much effort into the details.
I wouldn't mind reading about more of Mullins and Roger's adventures.  The book was well written and entertaining and I would definitely recommend it to my mystery lovin' friends out there.

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This post is part of the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge 2013.