Mixed Signals: A Grace Street Mystery

By: Jane Tesh
Publisher: Poisened Pen Press
Publishing Date: October 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4642-0061-8
Reviewed by: Mary Lignor
Review Date: September 27, 2012

David Randall, Private Detective extraordinaire, is looking forward to Christmas in the small town of Parkland, North Carolina. David’s friend Camden owns the house David lives in and is a psychic that has helped the local authorities many times to solve their cases. As I said, David is looking forward to Christmas as his widowed mother is coming for a visit and even though David knows that his mom will want to talk about David’s daughter, who was killed in a car accident, he loves his mom and wants to see her.

Getting back to the story, David and his psychic friend Camden have come upon a dead body. The victim is Jared Hunter, a friend of Camden’s. Since Camden has helped the authorities in the past through his psychic powers, he and David are trying to help out in this case much to the dismay of the Chief of Police. Unfortunately, Camden is having horrible flashbacks about the scene of the crime but can’t seem to see anything helpful for the police. On the hunt for clues, David finds that Jared, the victim, had served jail time for breaking into the Museum of History in Parkland and that Bert Galvin, son of the editor of the local newspaper, was also involved.

Also, in this little town, there is a Superhero, the Parkland Avenger, who is running around town at night in a costume to fight crime. There are a group of people in town calling themselves The Super Hero Society who also want to fight crime but they deny knowing the Avenger. Are they somehow connected?

On the way to solving this murder, the author takes us on a roller coaster ride through the town and all these fascinating characters. This is really a fun read as there are so many different characters to learn about. You will really have to keep your eyes open to see them all.

Quill says: I really loved Mixed Signals and am looking forward to the next adventure featuring David Randall and his gang.