Whiskey Sour (Jack Daniels #1) – J.A. Konrath

Lieutenant Jacqueline 'Jack' Daniels is having a bad week. Her live-in boyfriend has left her for his personal trainer, chronic insomnia has caused her to max out her credit cards with late-night home shopping purchases, and a frightening killer who calls himself 'The Gingerbread Man' is dumping mutilated bodies in her district. Between avoiding the FBI and its moronic profiling computer, joining a dating service, mixing it up with street thugs, and parrying the advances of an uncouth PI, Jack and her binge-eating partner, Herb, must catch the maniac before he kills again....and Jack is next on his murder list. Whiskey Sour is full of laugh-out-loud humor and edge-of-your-seat suspense, and it introduces a fun, fully drawn heroine in the grand tradition of Kinsey Millhone, Stephanie Plum, and Kay Scarpetta. 

Breaking It Down Further: Lt Jack Daniels arrives on a new murder scene with a cocky note from the new serial killer in Chicago: The Gingerbread Man. As the grisly murders pile up, the hunt gets personal with the murderer latching onto Jack. To make matters worse, her live-in boyfriend decides to up and move out for his personal trainer and her insomnia is wearing on her even more.

I have to say that my first reaction was actually how violent this book was! Most of the “cozy” mysteries (which I thought this was more along the lines of a cozy before picking it up) don’t go into grisly murder details. Granted I do read quite a bit of JD Robb’s In Death books which get pretty gruesome, but I guess I just wasn’t expecting it here. What made it more intense was that the chapters alternated between Jack’s first person account of the events and the third person narrator telling the murder’s side of the story. Little by little we actually gain clues about his real identity and why he chooses the women he murders. I think I just wasn’t prepared for it to be so in depth from the killer’s side and it brought a really personal and personally disturbing touch to the book. That being said, very interesting plot and I really liked how it was all tied together in the end. You know there’s something to tie it all in and for it to make sense why this guy chooses his victims, but I like that you can’t really guess what the answers are.

4/5 stars
I enjoyed this one! Really good mystery, as I said. I loved the humor sprinkled here and there and the stupid jokes and puns that Jack employs. Great for a little bit of lightness in it. I liked almost all of the protagonists here and the FBI agents were a stitch!

If You Liked This, You Might Like…
Naked In Death by JD Robb — Okay, so I probably already used this as a recommendation, but really – Start reading this series if you aren’t already!!!! Lots of similarities — Female lieutenant, almost reluctant but still hilarious humor, serial killers/brutal murder to solve, a more light-hearted partner, and of course the murderer is out to get our leading lady!
…OR…
One For the Money by Janet Evanovich — Yeah, yeah, I recommend this one constantly too, but how can I not! I love Stephanie Plum and even though she’s more running after thugs than murders, the comedy is similar and they’re just really fun books.