In Gallup Greed by Tower Lowe Series: Cinnamon/Burro New Mexico Mysteries #6
Published by eiffeltowerlowe publishers on June 26th 2014
Genres: Thriller, Mystery
Pages: 212
Format: eBook
Source: the author Tower Lowe
Lonnie is stabbed to death while his sister, Mirage, is in a black out. Did she kill him? Gallup, New Mexico provides the backdrop for greed, scrambled brains, illicit love, and murder. Cinnamon and Burro trail a gallery owner, a young boy with TBI, and a group of greedy young artists through the high desert, looking for a murderer. Burro suffers visions of the crime. Spirits communicate with the suspects. Cinnamon and Burro search for answers and the illusive Momma makes a phone call from the past.
**Special thanks to the author Tower Lowe for supplying my copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**
In Gallup Greed is a mystery novel whose actions take place in Gallup, New Mexico. It’s the 6th book in the Cinnamon/Burro New Mexico Mysteries series. However, the previous books in the series were novellas.
Cinnamon is a private investigator who is obsessed by finding her mother Cinnamon (same name). Her mother has abandoned her and her father when she was just a little kid. Cinnamon knew through a friend of hers that her mother has lived in Gallup some years ago. So, when she is asked to help in investigating a murder case in Gallup she is more than willing to take it. Mirage, the young woman seeking her help happens to know the mother. To Cinnamon, this is a chance she has to take to find some leads to her mother. Mirage having woken up after a black out to find her brother Lonnie stabbed to death is desperate to know the killer. She is afraid she might have done it while in black out. Mirage has been working with her brother and some other native artists in an arts gallery in Gallup. The gallery has been very profitable and they were hopeful this can bring their art to the world. When Cinnamon and her assistant Burro arrive at Gallup and start their work, they feel there is more to the gallery than they knew. Secrets start to unfold and so does the plot.
The story was interesting though some parts were predictable. I could predict the doubtful gallery business from the start. Yet I couldn’t predict the killer.
There were some flaws though, some of which reached the level of distraction. The first thing was the continuous switching between first voice and third voice narration. Actually I love books with multiple narrations where I can see the plot from different perspectives. Yet they need to be all in third voice for example. When a book is written in first voice I guess it should stick to it. What made it worse is that at some chapters the first voice switched to third voice then went back to first voice for the same character (cinnamon I mean). This really distracted me.
Another issue was the excess use of coincidence to build the plot. I understand that they were used to serve the plot. However, sometimes they didn’t. It was like the whole town had only the characters of the book. It just made me feel unconvinced.
About Tower Lowe
Tower Lowe (aka Donna Tower Pecherer) is published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and is the author of mystery novellas and a full-length novel featuring Cinnamon and Burro. She lives in New Mexico. The search for Momma in this series reflects the author’s real life story because her own mother died when she was 13, and so she “searched” for her mother most of her life. Tower Lowe was a real person and Donna Tower Pecherer was named for her. Tower suffered from epilepsy, and died as a result of burns suffered during an epileptic seizure. All the stories include individuals with disabilities, including Burro, who partners with Cinnamon to solve crimes.