Death by Sunken Treasure by Kait Carson - #review

When Hayden Kent’s mentor and friend discovers her son Mike’s dead body, dressed in full scuba attire, washed up on Pigeon Key, she needs Hayden. Her paralegal and dive skills may help unravel the tragedy of Mike’s last days. He’d recently discovered a sunken Spanish galleon and rumors that he hit the mother lode ran through the Keys like wildfire.

Hayden’s dive on the treasure site uncovers gold, and clues that Mike’s death was something far more sinister than an accident. When two different wills, both signed the day Mike died, are delivered to the courthouse, the suspect list grows, as do the threats against her. The danger escalates as she tries to save herself, discover the motive, and find the killer.

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MY REVIEW

Well, now I can chalk reading a cozy with scuba diving as a theme off my book bucket list!  Ok, yes, I jest, but I do like to see what cozy authors will come up with next.  Scuba diving is one thing that's always been a hazy-back-of-my-mind-I'd-like-to-do-that-one-day things (that I may or may not actually do), but for some folks it is their livelihood and life.

Hayden and her friends son Mike are two such people.  Hayden is the MC, a paralegal for whom scuba is an intense hobby.  For Mike, it was his business.  He was working on finding/discovering a  shipwreck - with hopefully lots of valuable cargo, that had been sitting on the ocean floor off the coast of Florida.  Unfortunately, before Mike can utter a word in the book, his mother finds him dead, in the water at a dock, on her way to work.

Now, most people are the responsible sort, and if they have a family and/or a large sum of money likely to be left upon their death, they will have their lawyer draw up a will for the dispensation of their estate.  I guess Mike was extra careful, because he apparently had two...both filed on the same day.  But which one was the final change...ah, that is the question.  One was filed by Hayden's firm, drawn up approximately 24 hours before his death.  The other was presented by a rival lawyer, representing the mother of the boy he believed to be his child.

There are numerous suspects for Mike's death, from ex-partners (and their families), to his ex, etc. etc. etc.  The ex goes so far as to take out a protective order against Hayden, stating  that she felt threatened when Hayden came to her house to ask her a few questions.

This is the second book in the Hayden Kent Mystery series, the first having been "Death by Blue Water", released in November of 2014.  There was a lot of technical scuba information in the beginning chapters of the book which made for slow going at first.  I imagine if I had read the first installment first, this could have been avoided.  Nonetheless, I did keep reading, and am now determined to go back and read the first!

Hayden is a very likable (that's the spelling spell check gave, but it looks funny to me) character.   She is a woman of her word, defends her friends fiercely, and apt to get herself into dangerous situations in pursuit of her goals.  Season that with a dash of snark and you have one very cool heroine!  I look forward to seeing what she gets into next!

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MEET THE AUTHOR

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Mysteristas (more or less the first Tuesday of the month)

Writers Who Kill (the fourth Saturday of the month)

Kait Carson spent a lifetime living and working in the tropical paradise of south Florida. She opted for a day job as a paralegal practicing in the world of high-end estates and probate litigation. Legal pads give way to a keyboard in the evening and Kait spins tales of murder and mayhem set in the steamy Florida heat. Like her protagonist, Hayden Kent, Kait is an accomplished SCUBA diver. She lives with her husband, six rescue cats and three tropical birds at an airpark in Florida. Not too far from the water.

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This is the last day of the tour, but you can click on the banner to go to the tour page to find more reviews, as well as guest posts, author interviews and GIVEAWAYS!

(Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book in exchange for my objective review.  Post contains affiliate links.)

NOTE:  This book helped me complete the following 2016 Reading Challenges:
2016 GoodReads Challenge
2016 52 Books in 52 Weeks
2016 Mount TBR Reading Challenge
2016 New Authors Reading Challenge
2016 Read Harder Challenge (historical fiction)
2016 Southern Literature Challenge