TT7: The Perfect Brother

Welcome to Mysteries to Die For and this Toe Tag.I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is normally a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you at the heart of mystery, murder, and mayhem. Today is a bonus episode we call a Toe Tag. It is the first chapter from a fresh release in the mystery, crime, and thriller genre.Today’s featured release is The Perfect Brother by Chris Patchell. The Perfect Brother was released September 27, 2022 from Chris Patchell Ink and is available from Amazon and other book retailers.About Chris PatchellChris Patchell is an award-winning USA Today Bestselling Author who started writing to curb the homicidal tendencies she experienced during her daily Seattle commute. Over the years, she has written numerous popular books and series, including bestsellers Deadly Lies, In the Dark, and her most recent collection of small-town crime novellas, the Lacey James Series. Along the way, her writing has won several awards, including a 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award, an IndieReader Discovery Award, and a Pacific Northwest Literary Award. Connect with Chris through her newsletter to learn more about her latest works and author happenings. Newsletter sign up can be found on her website: https://www.chrispatchell.com/newsletter/From September 26 thru October 21, 2022, The Perfect Brother is on tour with Partners in Crime. Check out the tour link for more content and information. https://www.partnersincrimetours.net/the-perfect-brother-by-chris-patchell/ TG Wolff ReviewThis story is made up of two parts. The first part is suspense; the second part is amateur sleuth. This one is hard to summarize without giving too much away. Suspense: In a university area of Vancouver, a college co-ed Katie Lord disappeared during a run. Flyers are up everywhere and the cops like her fiancé for it. Mallory Riggins isn’t thinking about Katie when she discovers her driver’s side window shattered. She’s not thinking about anything except how to pay for the repair. Which is too bad. She really should.Mystery: Amar Saraf is the college professor his students call Dr. Hottie. His is admired by his students and is the apple of his parents’ eye. Indira is his brilliant, younger sister who bucks tradition and her parents at every turn. But even she admits, Amar is the perfect brother. Which is why, when Amar is arrested for the murder of his lover, Indira puts her software engineering skills to work to catch a killer. Bottom line: The Perfect Brother is for you if you like suspense, dynamic amateur sleuths, and technology as an integral part of detecting.Let’s compare The Perfect Brother to the “perfect suspense” and the “perfect amateur sleuth” Strengths of the story. In the first half of the book, the element of suspense is driven by seeing snippets of characters' lives, uncomfortable and imperfect, but not knowing how they all fit together. Ms. Patchell does an excellent job of ensuring you bite your fingernails. Once the victim is dead and the perfect brother arrested (not a spoiler because it’s on the back cover), the story is taken over by Indira Saraf, a talented software engineer who has mad IT skills. While the first half of the story evolves, Indira drives the second half. She is the catalyst that moves her brother’s case forward and in unexpected directions.The array of characters are all well done. Indira is the hero of this story. She is not only easy to like, she is easy to respect. Like any good detective, she has her supporting cast, each of whom plays a role in the outcome.I have not read other stories set in the Indian-Canadian culture, making this a nice departure from the usual. The role of family and pressure on both males and females added to the complexity of the story in a way that was natural and complimentary. The story is cleanly written with no typos or other distractions.Where the story fell short of ideal: Looking from front to back, this is an excellent suspense turned mystery. Looking back to front, there are questions of the “bad guys” motivation and actions that aren’t fully explained. The story does not give the killer’s confession to allow us to see for ourselves. We are left with the reasoning from Indira and the police, which leaves gaps. Not big ones, but they are there.This one is a pet peeve. Indira has an awesome dog named Hazel who she is constantly leaving for extended periods of time. I can’t be the only one who reads that someone is staying overnight and thinks “what about the dog?” Go ahead cat people, roll your eyes.