I enjoyed Marcy McCreary’s first Susan Ford mystery, The Disappearance of Trudy Solomon, and was excited to read the second book in the series, The Murder of Madison Garcia. I was happy to see that this book features another collaboration between Detective Ford and her father, a retired police officer. This time around, the pair investigate the death of Madison Garcia, who happens to be the daughter of a family friend and who placed a call to Detective Ford on the night of her murder. One of the many joys of this book is the depiction of Detective Ford’s relationship with her parents. McCreary lovingly captures the mix of affection, squabbles, and humor between Ford and her aging parents. Themes of family and friendship were also woven throughout this mystery and raised interesting questions about the people we trust (or simply tolerate) and why. As in the first book, McCreary nails the investigatory details that make for an engrossing police procedural. 

Reader Takeaway: The Murder of Madison Garcia is another engrossing, page-turning mystery from McCreary. This book kept me guessing up to the very end with an interesting ensemble of suspects, all of whom have their secrets. I suspected just about every character at one point or another! Of course, I stayed up way too late finishing this book, and now I’m already looking forward to the next one.

Writer Takeaway: I’m currently outlining my second book in a series, so I was especially struck by how skillfully McCreary carried over characters and events from her first novel into her second. I’m sure we have all encountered a series where each book has an info dump to catch readers up on what they may have missed. Those who have followed the series over time might just skim over this type of ‘housekeeping’ summary. McCreary shows authors how to avoid this and, instead, capitalize on the complexity of recurring characters. Nothing felt repetitive in McCreary’s second book—instead, McCreary built on the foundations from her first novel while including just the right amount of information for new readers. The Murder of Madison Garcia offers a great example for those of us who might want to write a series by showing how recurring characters and places can grow cumulatively richer with each book.