Book Review: Send in the Clowns by Julie Mulhern

Haunted houses are scary enough without knife-wielding clowns. Especially murderous knife-wielding clowns. So thinks Ellison Russell, single mother, artist, and reluctant sleuth.

Now death wears a red nose and Ellison is up to the blood-stained collar of her new trench coat in costumes, caffeine, and possible killers. Who stabbed Brooks Harney? And why? Money? Jealousy? Drugs?

With Mother meddling, her father furious, and her date dragged downtown for questioning, turns out Ellison’s only confidante is Mr. Coffee.[summary via Amazon]

It's Halloween in Kansas City, Missouri, and Ellison Russell is caught up in a Halloween mystery. When Ellison enters a haunted house looking for her daughter, she finds a dead body. Literally the body of Brooks Harney is thrown at her. As she investigates she finds more secrets than she wants to know!

I seriously love this series. I've now read three books in this series in three days. Needless to say my house is a mess, but I've been on a wild, wild ride with the Country Club members and Ellison Russell and I don't regret a minute of it.

Send in the Clowns spooked me from the very beginning. A haunted house with a clown being killed by a clown. Clowns scare the bejesus out of me (thank you Stephen King!). However, I put aside my fear of clowns because I knew this was going to be a great mystery, and I was right! 

All the regular crew were back in this mystery, Ellison's parents, her daughter, Grace, her housekeeper, Aggie, and of course Detective Anarchy Jones and Hunter Tafft. We also get introduced to new characters, and of course that means new secrets and more suspenseful mystery. The mystery was top notch and it left me on the edge of my seat, trying to unravel it, right up to the end!

Ellison's family is always full of drama, and this book was no different. Without meaning to, Ellison runs up against her mother, father and sister, as she doesn't always seem to do what they want. I love Ellison's mom, Frances, in a love-to-hate-her kind of way. She reminds me of Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls, as she tries to take control of every situation and run her family with a iron fist. Unfortunately Ellison has ideas of her own, how her life should be.

Send in the Clowns was another fantastic read, and if you're not reading this series yet, you should be!