Review of SISTER GYPSY MOON by Karen Leabo (see her website)

BooksForABuck.com, May 2003

The crumbling purple house, wedged into an obscure Dallas neighborhood, seems the perfect place for Gypsy Larabee to hide from her abusive ex-boyfriend. But the house harbors dangerous secrets, and her investigation into the missing homeowner's whereabouts proves hazardous to Gypsy's health. Gypsy's troubles begin when she is mistaken for Ruby, the absentee homeowner, who was a fortuneteller. A few of Gypsy's chance comments prove eerily prescient, and soon she has a hoard of paying customers at her door. But her crystal-ball reading brings on the wrath of her ultra-religious neighbors, a media frenzy, and a violent gang member who is obsessed with the purple house.

Add to Gypsy's problem her control freak lawyer sister, Petal, who moves in after her husband locks her out of her Highland Park mansion, and the quietly obscure existence Gypsy dreamed of is in fragments. Her discovery of Ruby's body thrusts her already chaotic life into a new direction, as solving the mystery becomes a matter of survival.

The mysterious events gradually increase the pressure. Gypsy tries and fails to field every pop fly that comes her way until her life becomes impossibly tangled. The mystery is complex, as are the relationships in Gypsy's life, especially the ones with her sister and a certain, hot-blooded reporter whose motives are never quite clear. An intricately textured story with potential to lead into a continuing series.

Karen Leabo is well known as a talented romance author (see BooksForABuck.com reviews of Karen Leabo/Kara Lennox romances). With SISTER GYPSY MOON, she broadens her focus and delivers a crisply written and involved mystery. GYPSY contains a hint of the paranormal, an interesting love/lust triangle between Gypsy, her sister Petal, and Petal's husband, plenty of slimy suspects who definitely are not looking out for Gypsy's best interests.

Four Stars

Reviewed 5/18/03

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