Take the Body and Run (Macey Malloy Mysteries)

Have you heard about the Kindle Scout Program? The program encourages authors to submit new books and have the books voted on by readers. Kindle Press publishes the book that garners the most votes. Jada Ryker, whom I have read before, submitted her book Take the Body and Run and won! Of course, I had to read it! Synopsis (from the author): Macey's first day in the college employee relations department ends with a knife at her throat. Macey is certain things can't get any worse. She's wrong. An angry employee vows to put her on an online hit list. When he turns up dead, she's a suspect--and on the hit list. To keep her secrets and her life, Macey partners with two unexpected allies who cause her pulse to race with steamy attraction--and exasperating annoyance. Vince, a handsome, driven lawman, digs up more than just clues to the brutal murder. Brett, a fun-loving pathologist with a deadly sense of humor, drives everyone crazy with his fart machine-will travel. Macey's supersized black cat Wikket, possessing courage, curiosity, and crankiness in equal portions, assists in his own grumpy, feline fashion, golden eyes open and claws extended. What I liked: As with the other Jada Ryker books I read, connecting with the characters is easy. Macey, with her secret past, Brett, with his goofy personality, and Vince, as the no-nonsense lawman, all blend into the story nicely. Macey’s cat provides side entertainment, and Macey’s office staff is an excellent cast of characters. The story itself moves along and, despite having a chick-lit feel, kept me turning the pages. Overall, an excellent read! What I didn’t like: About my only criticism of the book is some of the minor characters could have been fleshed out a bit more. Those characters could have added a lot to the story. Overall impression: Filled with fun characters, romance, and a good story, Take the Body and Run is a book to read when you need a fun and entertaining read! My rating: 5 Stars

Macey Malloy is no nonsense and a strong woman. Not everyone likes that and her first day on the job, she is begins to wonder at how she was selected about the time someone pulls a knife. Macey discovers several "odd" things including clerks still typing on a typewriter and doing reports on paper. Aside from their dislike of her insistence the ancient typewriter go, there are a few other characters, including the man from the morgue and the detective. There are two plot lines that take twists and turns and overlap, with fart bags and a great cat, Wikket. The story is well paced, with humor and surprises. The characters are well-developed. I look forward to reading more of Macey Malloy.

I liked this book though it has a lot going on in it and was extremely slow to me at the start. I had some trouble keeping everything straight about what was going on in this book. I loved the plot but it is a bit complicated. There is two different story lines going on in the book that might or might not mix at the end. The story also took a bit to get going due to everything that was going on. I loved the random humor that was in this book and I absolutely love the cat. The book is definitely not serious. It is more of a humor mystery. If you are looking for a serious book this is definitely not it. For me this is a 3 start because it felt all over the place. I would read more of this purely because of the humor and the cat. The fact that the humor makes it different than most mysteries I end up reading is a plus as well. I did feel that there were a bit to many characters and I kept getting confused as to who is who. I kept having to reference the list of characters at the start of the book to keep it all straight.

Jada Ryker describes Take the Body and Run as "A Macey Malloy Mystery with a Chick-Lit Twist." This is apparently the first in a series which should leave the reader hungry for more. Poor Macey! It's her first day as the new Employee Relations director at a university, and what happens? A woman slaps her desk and threatens her with a butcher knife. "It's your fault my husband is dead," she says. "Now I'm getting even." From then on, things get even more hectic and hazardous. A couple of people are murdered, and Macey's a suspect. As she freely admits, she isn't always good with people, and she quickly attracts enemies. Along the way, there's a budding romance and a huge cast of characters which I'm surprised Ryker not only manages to keep straight in her mind but in the reader's as well. This is an ingenious, complex, fast-paced mystery whose comic touches kept me chuckling as I tried to figure out who the murderer or murderers were. It's also sometimes over the top, and I found the characters' antic behavior occasionally implausible. Somehow Macey's cat Wikket always manages to jump into the act at the right time, invariably making a statement in the process. Ultimately, Macey's adventures swept me along to a satisfying conclusion which left me eager for a sequel.

I will give this book 3.5 stars. In the beginning of this book, I struggled to understand the story line and immerse myself in the book. I nearly put it down, but I am glad I didn't. Macey Malloy as well as the rest of the cast are actually quite funny. I loved all the weird and quirky people in her office, although I have to say the working environment is a bit cut throat (attacks by typewriter are not uncommon) There is a bit of mystery and a bit of romance and a l lot of sleuthing going on. This book sort of reminded me of Jana Deleon and her Mudbug series. Here, instead of a ghost, there is a cat that saves the day :-) ( I think there is more to this cat than meets the eye) In the end, this is a wonderful over the top book, with weird and funny characters to entertain you all the way. I look forward to the rest of this series. I received a free copy from Kindle Scout.

Not my favorite. It was just a little too busy and too silly at times for me. I didn't have a whole lot of interest in the characters enough to care about what happened. (Free copy received in Kindle Scout)

Macey Malloy ran away from home when she was 17 and changed her name so her family couldn't find her. She successfully hid and had a good life. When she got a new job in a college's employee relations department she didn't expect to have a woman take a knife to her throat on her first day there. Things kept getting worse when most of the employees tried everything they could to get rid of her. Macey was the first person to find Angela dead so she was a prime suspect. Enter Detective Vince Knox to solve the crime. Macey and Vince felt an attraction but Macey was also drawn to Dr. Brett Reed at work. I liked the plot in Take the Body and Run. This is a well written book with lots going on giving me many questions which were all answered as the story progressed. I couldn't understand why anybody would want to work at the college because the people were so horrible. The stunts they pulled were very funny though. I felt sorry for Macey having to run away from home but I liked her strong personality. Even though her life started out badly she turned it around and made a good life for herself. I received this book through the Kindle Scout program.

Take The Body and Run was a much anticipated cozy mystery with a hint of chic lit. The book opens with bios of all the characters in the story, and there were just too many to keep track, so I stopped reading them and went right to chapter one. I would recommend doing that because otherwise there is no way to keep the characters straight without a cliff notes sheet. I prefer to be surprised anyway, so it didn't bother me to skip them. Once I met Macey I loved her instantly! She's a no nonsense boss who doesn't take any garbage from the employees she manages. There were two plot lines in this book that took twists and turns until the end, and I won't spoil it, but let's say it was good to figure them both out. Out of all the characters in this book I think I liked Wikket the cat the best. While sleuthing cats aren't a new concept to cozy mysteries, Wikket has a personality all his own. You'll love how he inserts his paw into the mix and manages to pull out the most important players. The humor in the book is enough to make you laugh aloud multiple times, and there were a few times that I even gasped at the turn of events. Even with the heavy character load I give it five stars because the characters were well-developed, and well-executed and all in all a very fun read!

When the first chapter of a book begins with the widow a former employee holding its protagonist at knife-point, believing that she was responsible for her husband’s death, you know only too well that the story is going to be eventful, and in this case, you would be right. ‘Take the Body and Run’ is a crazy but fun ride centring on Macey Malloy as she begins her new job in a university, battling for control of her dysfunctional department. It is packed with crazy, larger than life characters, twists and turns around every corner and humour aplenty. In particular, Macey’s grouchy cat, Wikket is a source of great fun, with a habit of intervening in Macey’s life at the most inopportune moments – something that any cat owner will recognise and smile at. Later of course, things take a darker turn when a body is discovered. Although the book is touted as a murder mystery, it is largely an exploration of human relationships, in particular those of work colleagues. While at times, Macey’s colleagues do seem a little over the top (I doubt many of them would actually keep their jobs in the real world), I did recognise many of their traits in people I have come across in my own life, in particular those who refuse to let go of the past and insist on working in ways that seem positively archaic to the rest of us – this led to a nice running gag about an ancient manual typewriter being used in a variety of inventive ways. To tell you any more would spoil the fun, so all I will say is that I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and if you are in the mood for a witty and inventive murder mystery adventure, you won’t be disappointed.

This one found its way to me via Kindle Scout; and I'm glad it did. I'm also very glad that I'm retired. I should hate to work in an office these days if Macey Malloy's experiences are anything to go by. There are mysteries, dead bodies, quirky characters and more besides to cope with; and that's just the first chapter! The strand of wicked humour that runs throughout the story helped keep my attention. There are a lot of characters, which means that deep into the book it's 'harder to see the wood for the trees', but the tempo is always pacy and the writing style engaging. Well worth a read if you like a modern mystery with a slice of romance.

I would call this story a madcap romp. Would make a good sitcom but as a read it was hard to keep track of so many characters (of no apparent use), and the number of things crammed into a short timeframe. However, it was fast-paced and entertaining.

Title: Take the Body and Run Author: Jada Ryker From: Kindle Scout Genre: Chick Lit, Mystery Release Date: 20th September 2016 Challenges: 2016 New Release Challenge Links: Goodreads - Amazon Synopsis (from Goodreads): 2016 Kindle Scout Winner. Macey's first day in the college employee relations department ends with a knife at her throat. Macey is certain things can't get any worse. She's wrong. An angry employee vows to put her on an online hit list. When he turns up dead, she's a suspect--and on the hit list. To keep her secrets and her life, Macey partners with two unexpected allies who cause her pulse to race with steamy attraction--and exasperating annoyance. Vince, a handsome, driven lawman, digs up more than just clues to the brutal murder. Brett, a fun-loving pathologist with a deadly sense of humor, drives everyone crazy with his fart machine-will travel. Macey's supersized black cat Wikket, possessing courage, curiosity, and crankiness in equal portions, assists in his own grumpy, feline fashion, golden eyes open and claws extended. I'm not all that sure how I feel about Take the Body and Run yet. I was really looking forward to reading it because I have enjoyed chick lit mysteries before, though I am starting to wonder if they're really for me. However on the flip side I had two theories about who was guilty during the book and they were both wrong, so the big reveal did manage to take me by surprise. Macey had a past and it was clear from the very beginning that that was the case. However that past was a lot darker than I expected and I was slightly surprised by how it was resolved. On that note though I thought that the resolution did leave room for more potential Macey books. There was an intro to all the characters in the book at the start and I will admit to being a tiny bit confused by it at first, I worried that I'd missed a previous book that introduced them all but instead it was just about the characters that Macey meets from the start of Take the Body and Run. There was a minor love triangle going on, I say minor because beyond the characters being attracted to one another, and about two brief instances of acting on that. I liked that there wasn't much focus on the love element when everything else was going on, and I think that Macey ended up with the right one...though the other ones ending I wasn't quite so enthustastic about. I enjoyed reading this but it didn't blow me away.

It would be fairly pointless for me to run over the basic storyline of this novel; that has already been done more than enough times in previous reviews. So let's get down to the general enjoyability factor. Will you arrive at the end with a smile on your face? If you are only interested in serious, hard edged crime fiction – definitely not. But then, in that genre you probably wouldn't expect to finish with a big grin anyway. However, if you want to give gritty realism a bit of a swerve and enjoy characters that are wacky, loopy, quirky and crazy (no, this isn't the start of renaming Snow White's seven dwarfs), then this could be right up your street. It's a combination of chick lit comedy and action/adventure with a liberal sprinklings of romance and a central character called Macey whose average day makes the madcap adventures of Bridget Jones seem positively mundane. In Macey's world, genuine murder is almost as commonplace as a metaphorical stab in the back from a work colleague. With the body count rising, office politics has never been so deadly. Or so much fun, especially if you happen to be reading from a safe distance. So will you arrive at the end with a smile on your face? I certainly did.