What Strange Creatures by Emily Arsenault

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Emily Arsenault's latest, What Strange Creatures.

Theresa doesn't mind dog watching for her brother's girlfriend for the weekend, but when Monday rolls around with no sign of Kim, Theresa starts to get concerned. A bit of poking reveals that pretty much no one has any idea where Kim is. Just a few days later, though, the hotel Kim stayed at reports her missing and her car is found abandoned. Theresa and her brother begin to do some digging and find that the girl might have been mixed up in something shady. Nothing prepares them for what comes next, however. Kim's body is discovered and Theresa's brother is arrested for murder. Now it's up to Theresa to find out what Kim was really involved in and who might have had reason to kill her.

Arsenault's latest is a puzzle packed with charming characters and intrigue. Theresa is a perpetual grad student working as a copywriter for a votive candle company and delaying her thesis. Her brother, once labeled a genius, never finished college and has been unemployed since losing his job as a school bus driver. Theresa suspects he drinks too much as well. Murder, though, that's one thing she's sure her brother would never be capable of.

Kim is a mystery to them both. They discover some pictures of a local politician on her phone and soon realize that Kim was up to something questionable as pertains to the man. Was she blackmailing him? Was she having an affair? Was he the one that killed her?

I kind of loved What Strange Creatures. And I kind of knew I was going to love it from the start. Theresa drew me in from the opening lines:

What are you supposed to do on the second night your brother is in jail on a murder charge?

Should you watch The Colbert Report? Should you clean the black crud from behind your kitchen faucet? Should you make yourself a smoothing with protein powder?

Her penchant for turning to her thesis subject, Margery Kempe, is also incredibly endearing and quirky.

Overall I found What Strange Creatures to be a fairly light and quick read with the kind of plot and characters that will appeal to a wide array of readers from book clubbers to mystery fans.

Rating: 4/5

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here.

For more on Emily Arsenault and her work you can visit her website here. You can also like her on Facebook.