Sarah Zettel

I’ve got a new addiction.  It’s the John Ceepak mysteries by Chris Grabenstein.

I heard about these books in a segment on NPR, which described them as police procedurals set on the Jersey Shore, but what really grabbed me was the description of the hero.  Far from creating yet another brooding cop who’d seen it all and been beaten down by it, Grabenstein created a man who had seen it all but come out on the other side determined to do and be better and to see the world not through rose colored glasses but through the lens of optomism rather than cynicism.

Intrigued, I went around the corner to pester the good folks at Aunt Agatha’s and took home the first book.

I fell in love.

These books are not exactly light, but they’re smart, they’re fun, they’re fast.  The narrator’s voice is engaging and believable and clear.  I love Danny, the partner who tells the stories and his relationship with this seaside town, and pretty much everybody in it.  I love the way Grabenstein builds his main characters and fills in the complexity of their lives.  I’ve been binging on them for the past couple of months, and I suspect I’m going to be very sad when I do finish.