Review: The Body in Griffith Park

Review at a Glance

• Title: The Body in Griffith Park
• My Rating: 3.75
• Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
• Format: ARC*
• Publication Date: July 16, 2019
• Author: Jennifer Kincheloe

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Book Blurb

Los Angeles, 1908. Anna Blanc is a former so-so socialite, a flailing police matron, and a killer detective.

Ex-heiress, Anna Blanc, is precariously employed by the Los Angeles Police Department, reforming delinquent children and minding lady jailbirds. What she really wants is to hunt criminals and be alone with Detective Joe Singer–both no-nos that could get her fired. On a lover’s tryst in Griffith Park, Anna and Joe discover the body of a young gambler. Anna can’t resist. She’s on the case.

With a murder to solve and her police matron duties piling up, Anna begins getting strange floral arrangements from an unknown admirer. Following the petals leads her to another crime–one close to home. Suddenly pitted against Joe, Anna must examine her loyalties and solve the crimes, even if it means losing the man she loves.

My Thoughts

This is book 3 of the series and for some reason this book felt like it could be read as a stand alone, even though I wouldn’t recommend it for book 2. Very weird and not the way this usually goes.

I’m a huge fan of Anna Blanc. She’s smart and funny and so relatable, which is strange because’s a former heiress, living in LA in the early 1900s. Not anything like me, but still, I understand everything she feels. At points, I wanted to roll my eyes at her naivety, but that’s kind of the point. Her sheltered life provides for some great humor as she learns how to live in the real world.

I had my first, “biscuits,” moment this week. My dog got loose upstairs because I left the gate open to the stairs. When I heard him run up the stairs, I literally said “biscuits,” and started laughing. That’s one of the great things about audiobooks. You hear them, so they can start to effect your speech pattern in a way that reading with your eyes just can’t.

Again, the narration was spot on. I never once thought that someone was reading to me, because I was able to get lost in the story rather than the voice performing it. Perfect inflection and character voices.

I want to mention, that I felt like book 3 had another moment of forced plot. The main love interests are being kept apart for the sake of continuing the will they won’t they plot line. I could be alone in this, but I feel like there is so much that happens once a couple decides to be together, that the series can really embrace their love and move on.

I want to see Anna get married and maybe do just a little bit of police matron work, but mostly solve crimes in hysterical ways.

*Special thanks to Jennifer Kincheloe, Jess the Audiobookworm, and Seventh Street Books for providing a copy of The Body in Griffith Park in exchange for an honest review.