New Orleans — Hunter Galen, a stock and securities broker, suspects his business partner, James Nowak, may be involved in embezzling their clients’ money, but he’s reluctant to jeopardize their friendship based on suspicion alone. After James turns up dead, Hunter realizes his unwillingness to confront a problem may have cost James his life.
Nicki Price, a newly minted PI, intends to solve the stockbroker’s murder, recover the missing millions from the client accounts, and establish herself in the career she adores. As she ferrets out fraud and deception at Galen Investments, Hunter’s fiancée, Ashley Menard, rubs Nicki the wrong way. Nicki doesn’t trust the ostentatious woman with an agenda longer than the Mississippi River. Ashley seems to be hiding something, but is Nicki’s growing attraction to Hunter—a suspected murderer—her true reason for disliking Ashley?
As they encounter sophisticated shell games, blackmail, and murder, Nicki and Hunter’s only option is to turn to God as they search for answers, elude lethal danger, and perhaps discover love along the way.
Mary Ellis is the best selling author of seven Amish inspirational novels that include The Wayne County series and The Miller Family series. She grew up in Ohio close to an Amish community. Before becoming a full-time writer, Mary taught middle school and worked as a sales rep for Hershey Chocolate. All three of her Miller Family series books have made the CBA and CBD bestseller lists. A Widow’s Hope was a finalist in the ACFW Carol Awards for 2010 and a runner-up in the 2010 Holt Medallion Awards.
My Impressions:
My book club, By The Book, loves a good mystery, and Midnight on The Mississippi by Mary Ellis provided just that. We loved the characters, the setting and the twisting plot. It also produced some very lively conversation and a desire to take a book field trip. All around, this book gets a thumbs up!
Nicki Price is a newly minted PI determined to leave her poor, rural roots behind. But can you really go forward without dealing with the past first? With perseverance, a bit of luck and a little swamp time, Nicki will find out just who killed Hunter Galen’s partner — hopefully before Hunter lands in jail and she ends up dead!
Let me say first that we loved, loved, loved the setting. New Orleans is one of my favorite places to visit and Ellis did a good job of bringing it and its environs to life. Her characters were fun, with many endearing and more that we loved to hate. The plot was a bit predictable and in some cases stretched credibility, but we decided to suspend disbelief and join in the fun.
There was only one thing that I took issue with. Nicki is a Mississippi girl and is often referred to by the author as a “delta” girl. Um, no. Nicki was from Natchez; the Delta (notice the capitalization) is located in the north western part of the state. It’s own distinctive region, the Delta has a rich culture and heritage, as rich as its black earth. While this discrepancy was a bit of an irritant for me, I decided to over look it. Regional details are difficult to get 100% right when you are not from the area. And if you are wondering how I know about such things, I lived in Mississippi for 8 years, married a Mississippi boy and had a true Delta Girl as a college roommate.
Minor issues aside, we loved this novel and will be reading book #2, What Happened on Beale Street, in 2017. We give it a highly recommended rating.
Highly recommended.
Audience: adults.
To purchase this book, click HERE.
(I purchased this book from Amazon. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
Midnight on the Mississippi begins the new Secrets of the South Mysteries from bestselling author Mary Ellis. These complex crime dramas follow an investigator’s quest to make the world a better place . . . solving one case at a time.
Mary Ellis
New Orleans — Hunter Galen, a stock and securities broker, suspects his business partner, James Nowak, may be involved in embezzling their clients’ money, but he’s reluctant to jeopardize their friendship based on suspicion alone. After James turns up dead, Hunter realizes his unwillingness to confront a problem may have cost James his life.
From one of our most accomplished and widely admired historians — a revelatory portrait of Benjamin Franklin’s youngest sister, Jane, whose obscurity and poverty were matched only by her brother’s fame and wealth but who, like him, was a passionate reader, a gifted writer, and an astonishingly shrewd political commentator.
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