DIPPED, STRIPPED, & DEAD - Elise Hyatt

From the back of the book: Refinishing furniture can be the end of you. Dyce (short for Candyce) Dare never thought she'd end up twenty-nine and divorced, with a toddler to raise, an ex who 'forgets' his child support, and a diet consisting mostly of pancakes.

To make ends meet, Dyce takes a chance and starts up Daring Finds, a furniture refinishing business. But finding things to refinish is tough---especially when Dyce goes Dumpster diving for discarded furniture and uncovers a gelatinous-looking corpse. Turns out the body was immersed in a vat of lye---a technique used for refinishing furniture---making Dyce a prime suspect.

Now, in order to clear her good---and thanks to her parents, slightly absurd---name, Dyce has to play private eye. But solving a murder isn't child's play, especially when the next victim just might be her...

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I wanted to like this book...and I did at least enough to finish it. I loved the new premise for the amateur sleuth, a single mom of a toddler and has her own furniture refinishing business she runs in her garage/shed. There's a lot of neat info on the how-to for refinishing along the story and at the end of the book. I liked that the book is set in Colorado, near Denver, so close to my heart, even though I couldn't figure out where the fictional town of Goldport was supposed to be emulating. I spent some time working that out..got sidetracked..then got even more sidetracked with the constant comparative narrative (at least that's what I call it). The kind that has each piece of information or person compared to something else...and I wish I could find an example, next time I'll put sticky notes inside.

I did have the two mysteries figured out, but it didn't matter. I was good for being along for the ride of the meandering. There's the requisite exasperated hottie cop to the rescue and the gay best friend. I know this series will smooth out as it progresses, I'll get the next in the series when it comes out.

Three it has good possibilities beans.....