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Book Review
Reviewed: 24 April 2024

Aloha Alibi

by: Jasmine Webb

A Charlotte Gibson Mystery - Book 1

  • Rating: full starfull starfull starhalf starstar outline (3.5/5)

This is not your typical cozy...but it is oh so much fun!

For a start, usually the amateur sleuth has shot anyone. When we first meet Charlotte aka Charlie, she is being robbed at gunpoint at her job at a jewelry store. In self-defense she kills the robber and from there her life is forever changed. She doesn't become a sleuth because of nosiness or overactive curiosity (not entirely) but out of the desire for the reward money so she can escape living with her grand baby focused mom. In her quest to solve the murder of a real estate executive killed just after the leaving the ice cream shop Charlie works at, she encounters Rosie and Dot, two of the coolest 70+ year olds.  The three become a team, reluctantly at first. From there all kinds of fun craziness happens.

I love the non-traditional backstory of Rosie and Dot coupled with straitlaced doctor and best friend Zoe, to balance out Charlie. Charlie's mom...is a bit one-dimensional but great comic relief.

Liam (not sure his last name more rank) tases Charlie who tries to protect Dot. It sets the stage for some fun police run-ins and shenanigans with Charlie. It also paves the way for more interactions with Liam's junior, Jake, who is by all accounts "a hottie" and more levelheaded than his partner.

It was a blast to listen to. The narrator did a fantastic job. I found myself laughing out loud through.

Note: There is language (light use of foul language), sexual references (mom gives unwanted advice - she really wants grandbabies) and violence (see self-defense murder in the beginning). I didn't find any of it offensive nor pervasive. 

Release Date: 8-June-2021

Plot Summary

Most people flee to Hawaii for gorgeous weather, white-sand beaches, and cocktails at sunset. Charlotte Gibson, however, is fleeing for her life after a vengeful mobster leaves a severed finger on her doorstep as a warning. Message very much received.

That’s how Charlotte—Charlie to everyone except her mom— finds herself on Maui with six dollars to her name, living with a mother who can’t stop giving her advice on how to land herself a husband. But when a businessman is murdered and his company offers a reward to whoever finds the killer, Charlie sees an opportunity: with that kind of cash, she could afford her own place and start a new life here away from the people who want her dead. After all, how hard can hunting down a murderer be?

Teaming up with a couple of old ladies with more spunk than Betty White, Charlie is sure she’s on the right track to snag the reward money. However, the infuriating-but-smoldering-hot cop trying to keep her away from his case has other ideas. Throw in a day job at an ice cream shop, corrupt local politicians, and a best friend trying to act as the voice of reason, and Charlie has her work cut out for her.

Will she be able to find the killer, or is Charlie’s time in paradise going to go straight to hell in a handbasket?