REVIEW: Caught Dead Handed

Caught Dead Handed
Author: Carol J. Perry

Lee Barrett has come home to Salem, Massachusetts with her sights set on a reporter's job at WICH-TV. When she shows up for her job interview, not only has the position already been filled, but she discovers the station's late-night psychic, Ariel Constellation, dead in Salem Harbor. Instead of a news anchor job, she finds herself filling the dead psychic's job -- introducing late night cheesy horror movies, and answering calls from viewers looking for psychic advice.  She becomes Crystal Moon for the show, Nightshades.  When another body is discovered and strange things start happening around the station, Lee becomes an amateur sleuth to discover the identity of the killer. 


Caught Dead Handed is the first book in the Witch City Mystery series. There are 3 books in the series so far. 
This book was a fun read! I love cozy mysteries, especially ones with cats.  The main character, Lee, not only fills Ariel Constellation's job, but adopts her cat as well.  The cat's name is Orion, which Lee changes to O'Ryan. The plot is a nice mix of mystery and humor. I liked the main character. She doesn't take herself too seriously. I mean how can you take yourself seriously when your job is to dress up in a gypsy costume and pretend to be psychic? 
The twist in the plot wasn't a big surprise. I had it figured out a few chapters before it was revealed. But that didn't impede my enjoyment of the book. The writing, plot, and characters were all well done, maintaining my interest all the way to the end. I did feel that things wrapped up rather hurriedly at the end, but I can't fault a 400+ page cozy for moving too quickly. The pacing was very well done.  I just felt the wrap-up was handled a bit too fast, with the mystery solved just a few pages from the end, without much information on what happened afterwards.
But, I guess all of that is in book 2.....which I will, of course, be reading. It doesn't take a psychic to figure that one out!