Peak Season for Murder by Gail Lukasik

Book three in Gail Lukasik’s Leigh Girard Mystery Series, Peak Season for Murder, is a fast-paced thriller of a murder mystery. The energy of the tale sprays from the pages like a soda bottle purposely shaken. The story is supercharged by the energy of the series’ title role, a high-energy vivacious reporter with a big heart.

The characters, especially Leigh Girard, leap from the pages. He or she, depending on the character, is impossible to ignore. Each character is a person in and of herself; there are no clones in Lukasik’s work. Lukasik’s characters are intelligent, at times high-strung, a bit ruff around the edges due to his or her own private brand of baggage, and each holds an incredible life-force all their own.

The work is extremely well written, with moments of poignancy, yet readers will never be pulled down by the weight of the plot’s topic. The landscape is perfect for the tale and only enhances the plot. An energy seems to flow through the entire work and keep what could be a depressing and horrific tale above all the darkness that must be enclosed. Mystery readers take heart; this is definitely a solid and intriguing story of murder, mystery, and at time mayhem. Readers will be willing to stay encamped within the story until Lukasik offers up a new tale for the series, as Lukasik keeps readers thoroughly entrenched in her tale and readers are the happier for it. ( )