Gag Me: A Friday Harbor Novel by Susan Wingate

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Those small islands. It's always those small islands where the murders happen! Well, at least in this case!  

Gag Me: A Friday Harbor Novel by Susan Wingate begins with you (yes, I mean you) in the local dive bar, listening to bogus songs from the eighties while listening to your good friend (maybe only friend) Winsey complain about her tough day. You are bored and just can't handle listening to her sob, so you call it a night and head home to see your cat Lester and clean up his inevitable furball messes. The next morning you discover that Winsey has been murdered, and wouldn't you know it, you were the last one to see her alive. To prove your innocence and find the killer, you embark on an investigation but are forced to work with the newly arrived police investigator you have recently nicknamed the Gargoyle. You don't want to be with other people, let alone work with them, but you are determined to track down Winsey's killer and clear your name. It is an investigation that makes you look hard and close at the people you thought you knew and culminates with a suspense-filled thriller ending.

Filled with a cast of wacky characters and some great lines, you get the chance to play the main character in Gag Me. It is like reading a 'choose your own mystery,' but you don't have to keep flipping back and forth between the pages or making questionable calls. Instead, the book does it for you. 

It is not often that I read novels written in the second person. However, Wingate has written an excellent second-person narrative. It is a writing style that I don't think is all that easy to carry off well, but she delivers consistently throughout the book with well-directed banter. Will be adding more of her books to my TBR pile!

I would recommend this book to those who enjoyed Charlaine Harris' Lily Bard Shakespeare series or Max Wirestone's Dahlia Moss Mysteries.

Review Published on  Reedsy Discovery on April 25, 2022.  Thanks to the author and Reedsy Discovery for providing a review copy of this book.

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