PERFECT AT MIDNIGHT: REVIEW of BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY by MIKE MARTIN

Better Safe Than Sorry is a light, cozy-like mystery that deals with serious issues facing a small community but also finds ways to celebrate family, food and good friends...

Title: Better Safe Than Sorry

Author: Mike Martin

Publication Date: May 10, 2024

Pages: 251

Genre: Mystery

Winston Windflower is (sort of) enjoying his retirement from the RCMP in Grand Bank, Newfoundland, happily spending time with his young family, but feeling a little restless. Corporal Eddie Tizzard is running the Marystown detachment and struggling with the demands of the role while his own family grows. When a new kind of drug threatens the community, a body (the wrong body) is found dead in a hearse, and then another drug-connected mysterious death occurs, Tizzard knows he’s dealing with a deadly menace in their quiet, close-knit community.

Windflower finds himself inexorably (and not unhappily) drawn back into the action, first in an unofficial role to help snare the dealers and then back to active duty in a community that desperately needs his steady hand and good judgement.

Our favorite Mountie, Sgt. Windflower and his fellow courageous cops in small-town Grand Bank, Newfoundland are back to fight a new threat in this compelling page-turner. Award-winning author, Mike Martin once again brings us a stirring story, blending down-home Newfoundland charm with the warmth of family life.

You can pick up your copy at Amazon.

Book Excerpt:

Some say that April is the cruelest month, but Winston Windflower was pretty convinced that it was March. At least in Grand Bank, Newfoundland. They’d had a relatively mild winter up to this point but now they were getting slammed. Not once but twice. By winter storms that started the day before St. Patrick’s Day and were just ending now on March 19. The locals called the second storm “Sheila’s Brush” as a nickname given to a storm that seemed to occur right after Paddy’s Day. It came from an old Irish legend that claimed Sheila was the wife or sister or mother of St. Patrick and that this dumping of snow is a result of her sweeping away the old season of winter.

Supposedly, that was to prepare everyone for Spring, which the calendar said was about to begin in a week or so. But judging by the current weather and Windflower’s years of experience in Grand Bank, that new season was quite a way off. As he surveyed the banks of snow and checked the weather on his phone, there was more of the white stuff coming. He didn’t mind really. He actually liked the snow and living in this small town on the easternmost tip of Canada.

Until recently Windflower had been an RCMP Officer, a Mountie, but now was the Community Safety Officer for Grand Bank and a number of other surrounding communities. When the local RCMP detachment closed because of budgetary concerns, they needed someone to look after their local policing. The Mounties would look after the big stuff from nearby Marystown, about 40 minutes away, while they hoped Windflower would serve as a deterrent to local criminals who wanted to take advantage of the situation.

So far, so good on the crime front, thought Windflower who had actually spent most of his time doing outreach and crime prevention. In Marystown, however, things were not going so well.

About the Author

Mike Martin was born in St. John’s, NL on the east coast of Canada and now lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a long-time freelance writer and his articles and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online across Canada as well as in the United States and New Zealand.

He is the award-winning author of the best-selling Sgt. Windflower Mystery series, set in beautiful Grand Bank. There are now 14 books in this light mystery series with the publication of Better Safe Than Sorry.

Mike is Past Chair of the Board of Crime Writers of Canada, a national organization promoting Canadian crime and mystery writers and a member of the Newfoundland Writers’ Guild and Capital Crime Writers.

His latest book is the mystery, Better Late Than Never.

REVIEW

THIS CLEVER TANGLE OF A MYSTERY IS HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!

While Grand Bank, New Foundland has never been noted for non-stop excitement, ex-Mountie Winston Windflower has been hoping for just that. He’s changed careers and that has left things quiet—more quiet than he’s used to—and he’s dying to sink his teeth into something more adventurous. As the adage goes: “Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it,” but because he does not heed the warning, Windflower ends up performing this exact trick. So when a friend offers him work due to an understaffed detachment, Windflower grabs the opportunity. Before he can say, “What did I do?” two crimes roll across his desk—one more sinister than the next. The first involves a narcotic called the Green Monsters. The new drug is a mixture of fentanyl and Xanax, and with fatalities from its usage on the rise, the spread of it needs to be stopped. The second concerns a corpse arriving at a mortuary for embalming. While the mortician was expecting a body, it wasn’t the one that’s delivered to his doorstep. With the funeral director insisting the dead bodies were switched, it’s up to Windflower to find out what happened and if the allegation is true.

All of the above is a taste of what Winston Wildflower walks into in this clever tangle of mystery entitled BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY. It’s number 14 and a perfect addition to the SGT. WINDFLOWER MYSTERY SERIES. The writing deft, I absolutely meant it when I called this series ‘addictive’. Inventive plots, unexpected twists, unique and original storylines, they’re mysteries you can get lost in. There’s also the in-depth study that each character is treated to. We get to know them, and that’s where the magic comes in.

If you’re one of those readers who don’t want vulgarity or profanities lacing the books you purchase, the Mike Martin series is perfect for you. There’s a real dignity and mutual respect for family, neighbor and community blended in rather nicely between the pages. It’s this humanity that the series features, but not in an overtly shrill manner. No lectures, no intimidation into being better citizens of the world, it’s just there … intertwining the main characters’ personal lives, with jobs they are sworn to uphold, and holding them to high standards. It makes family gatherings and friends getting together to shoot the breeze particularly inviting. You can just sit back and sink into the beauty of what happens when bonds are kept and friendship treasured. And it’s not just me noticing this. The word “charming” comes up quite often when discussing this author’s work, and this is what that word is referring to.

So if you love murder mysteries that are well-crafted, majorly entertaining, and interesting enough to keep you reading way past your bedtime, I can recommend trying the latest Sgt. Wildflower Mystery Series BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY. Five stars given and I know you’ll enjoy.