The female sleuth's name is Skye Denison, and Scumble River is the small town in Illinois she is from. She is a school psychologist and has recently moved back home after losing her job.

Skye stumbles upon a dead body and is shocked to learn that it was a woman by the name of Honey Adiar, who used to date Skye's older brother Vince in high school. Of course the police think Vince killed Honey. He claims not and Skye believes him.

Skye's mother May works as a part-time dispatcher for the local police station. She wants Skye to find out who the real killer is. May thinks that Skye's background as a psychologist will be helpful - that people will open up to her.

The relationship between Skye and her mother is interesting. They love each other but get on each other's nerves. I thought it was interesting that May wanted her to get involved. Typically a mother would not want her daughter trying to solve a murder mystery, so this is an interesting twist.

Skye is smart, and does a good job of handling people and knows what to tactfully say in tough situations.

I would recommend this book.

Despite the interesting array of characters, the plot isn't a deep mystery and is almost a series of events that just falls into its own conclusion. Skye never did much amateur sleuthing as far as I could tell, with luck on her side. Also, while I did enjoy the people, sometimes they felt a little overdone to the point of putting in too much forced comedy. There were some cute and amusing moments, but this isn't really a laugh out loud sort of book, more of a cozy (which is always good). The small atmosphere fits the story - and the series - perfectly. Some of the dialogue seems a bit stifled and forced, not completely genuine, but overall this book was a fun way to pass the time and the pace kept my attention to a maximum.

Overall a fun and light read without enough substance to stand out too much. I really dug Skye as a heroine and look forward to reading about the characters again.

Being a social worker myself, I found this to be a fun read. I found the ending to be just a bit weak and forced, but that may have just been because I'd had a hard day. Who knows? But I do plan to read the second in the series and hopefully the rest. Skye is the kind of person that I think I'd be friends with in real life, and I like her nerve. I think this is a great series, and I plan to read everything that Denise Swanson publishes!

This is a great first book to this series! Definitely a strong start! I have read many of the other books in this series and this is one of the top!

Skye is a school psychologist and there is a lot of great interaction with the kids at school as well as with the rest of the town itself.

The cover of this book caught my eye and even though I hadn't heard anything about the author I decided to give it a try.

It was a light, easy and mildly entertaining read. When I read mysteries I never try to guess who did it. I prefer to just enjoy the unfolding story. However, I figured out who did it without even trying. The story wasn't very original and the motive behind the murder was so (for lack of a better word) lame.

I may give Ms. Swanson another try just to see if she has improved.