whitneydaniell

Read my review for Glory Be (Glory Broussard Mystery #1)

Summary

Glory Broussard is back to her predictable shenanigans—running numbers on Sundays out of a booth at CC’s Coffee House and saving face in front of the other members of the Red Hat Society of Acadiana.

This year, Glory is the chair of the Mardi Gras committee and in charge of the church’s largest fundraiser of the year. Except Glory couldn’t care less about the menial tasks of putting on an event. And before she even gets the chance to skip out on her responsibilities, her ex-husband’s current wife, Valerie, drops in to beg for Glory’s help.

Sterling Broussard hasn’t been seen or heard from in two days, and his wife solicits Glory to help locate him—thanks to her local notoriety from helping solve the Amity Gay murder. But to Valerie’s dismay, Glory has no interest in finding Sterling—and even less interest in helping the hussy who broke her family apart.

When Glory unexpectedly stumbles upon a crime scene and Sterling turns out to be the unsuspecting victim, she has to put her pride aside and assist in the investigation any way she can. But not for Valerie—for her daughter.

Delphine is back in Lafayette for her father’s funeral and jumps right back into being Glory’s right-hand woman throughout the investigation. With help from a few other players, this mother-daughter private investigative duo is back on the case. With plenty of danger and missteps in their path, Glory and Delphine fight through it all—including their own personal blunders.

At this point, how much more trouble could Glory get herself into? The Lafayette Police Department should just pack it up and turn their office into a Spirit Halloween.

Character Summary

Glory is back—and less judgmental in this sophomore mystery novel. It seems only a few months have passed since the antics of the first novel ended and this one picked up, so maybe, in that short time, she did some soul-searching and decided to change her ways. Not to say she’s changed everything—she’s still dismissive of her daughter, Delphine, in many ways and still sharp-tongued when challenged—but this go-round, she’s much more… mellow.

And while Glory might have done a little better, Delphine still doesn’t have a clue. You’re fresh off a divorce and a work scandal—take some time and get to know yourself and what you want, jeez. That would seem simple enough, but nope—she pulls poor Justice into her web and then quickly latches on to her , weaving her into a world of her own creation, excluding everyone else. While I like this progressive, lesbian Delphine, she is not selling the part, and deep down, we all know she wants to be with Beau—who is going through a divorce of his own.

Noah is back at CC’s, Gus is running his successful honey business, and we get to see more of Constance, who is turning out to be a trusted confidante to Glory and—dare we say it—her friend.

My Thoughts

Ok. Ok. Ok. I liked this one. Just a little bit.

Glory is less judgmental this time around, and she’s not harming—or thinking about harming—any animals. She’s still her southern sweet, with a tinge of sour, Christian self, but much more toned down.

I do wish there had been more time set between Glory Be and Glory Daze, because just a few months doesn’t seem like enough time for all that transpires. When we meet Delphine in the first book, she’s on a leave of absence from work for sleeping with a married co-worker, and she’s also going through a divorce. But in this book, which picks up shortly after, she’s set to make partner at her law firm. Rightfully, she’s always performed well and their only gripe was her clandestine affair, not her work performance—but still, that just seems far-fetched, don’t you think? I would’ve given her at least a year before she was back on the partner track after that kind of indiscretion.

Also, I would’ve loved to see Glory get a break in between her grief and the devastation of seeing two dead bodies! I mean… she just lost her best friend. Give her a moment of bereavement before throwing her back into the line of dead bodies—so to speak. Lastly, could we get one—just one—police officer who wants to do some actual work? A changing of the guard at the police station, a new captain—something. The police cannot be inefficient and ineffective every single time. I’m writing the mayor. The governor. Anybody!

The writing is solid and straight to the point. Nothing drags, and the pacing is well done—it keeps the story moving. I found myself flipping page after page. I also agree with Glory: if you buy jarred mirepoix from the grocery store, I have every right to look down on your cooking.

Final Verdict

Didn’t hate it.

Arceneaux teases a third Glory Broussard Mystery at the end of this one—An Inglorious Season—and I’ll be adding it to my TBR. This book was a good palate cleanser after my last couple of reads.