This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and or/violence.
Title: Turn Key Condition
Published: July 16, 2014
Genres: chick-lit, mystery/thriller
Pages: 226
Format: eBook
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To make ends meet, Maggie, a divorcee with three sons, takes creative moonlighting to the limit. While cleaning a model home with her friend, Jane, she discovers a naked dead man with a donut over his genitals. The dead man is a married contractor who had once groped Maggie.Rating:
Maggie and Jane become caught up in the investigation to the annoyance of the police officer first on the scene. The Hispanic cop responds with pithy Mexican proverbs to Maggie’s sleuthing efforts.
Then Maggie’s ex rolls into town scheming to sell the family home out from under her with the help of an unscrupulous realtor, who is a suspect in the murder. When her sons pop up into the crosshairs of the killer, Maggie sharpens her survival skills to protect them and bring down the murderer.
TURN KEY CONDITION features a heroine who stares down danger with the humor and grace gained from an earlier detour into life’s darkness.
This was an enjoyable book.
You have a single mother of 3 boys who is trying to make ends meet. She works at the school during the day, she makes wedding cakes, she digs through garbage for items to sell on ebay, she does lawn set up for Realtor’s, and she helps clean houses with her friend Jane when she needs her. This mother is a busy busy one. But I enjoyed Maggie as a character because she never let anything get her down. How she was able to do it all alone with raising 3 boys is amazing. But when she takes on a job with Jane at a house that is part of a development she gets more than she bargains for. There is a dead man, and he is somebody she knows.
Now the dead man seems to have a shady life. There are things going on behind close doors that with all the speculation and theories it makes Maggie uncomfortable. Though you get a glimpse of why it makes her act differently when it is all brought up you don’t truly get what causes her to be this way. I am thinking maybe in another book we will be getting answers maybe? Especially since her brother comes into the scene once he hears of what Maggie discovers. At first I thought he might have been a bit crazy but there is a reason why Maggie’s brother is very protective of her.
Now the first officer on the scene his nickname is Tuna why it is Tuna I have no clue. But Maggie’s boys are hoot with trying to give him another name. You can tell Tuna has a crush on Maggie as he goes out of his way to help her out especially when Maggie’s ex husband comes back into the picture. And Maggie has to deal with his deceiving ways once again. Thank goodness for Tuna though because the killer of the contractor that Maggie found has one of her sons in his sights. Now when the killer became unveiled I had a feeling that was who it was, so for me it wasn’t a HUGE surprise.
Overall a good book, you have romance, a murder, a mystery trying to figure out who it is and a bit of humor. There is really not a lot of action except towards the end but nothing that is like WOW action! Maggie is a strong character who is likable. I hope there is a book two as I want to learn more about Maggie and her past. Not only that I wonder if there will be a relationship between Maggie and Tuna and if there will be more mystery’s’ to solve.
M.L. Ortega was raised in the North by Southerners and thus learned to embrace dichotomy, which shows in her writing. With humor at the wheel, dark subject matter rides ‘shotgun’.
Moving frequently throughout her childhood, her family finally settled in California, where she eventually married and had four children. The children have grown and moved away, leaving her in the care of a very patient husband and two independent cats.
