Expected publication date: April 7th, 2020
New York Times bestselling author Darynda Jones is back with the brand-new snarky, sassy, wickedly fun Sunshine Vicram series!
Sheriff Sunshine Vicram finds her cup o’ joe more than half full when the small village of Del Sol, New Mexico, becomes the center of national attention for a kidnapper on the loose.
Del Sol, New Mexico is known for three things: its fry-an-egg-on-the-cement summers, its strong cups of coffee—and a nationwide manhunt? Del Sol native Sunshine Vicram has returned to town as the elected sheriff–an election her adorably meddlesome parents entered her in–and she expects her biggest crime wave to involve an elderly flasher named Doug. But a teenage girl is missing, a kidnapper is on the loose, and all of it’s reminding Sunny why she left Del Sol in the first place. Add to that trouble at her daughter’s new school and a kidnapped prized rooster named Puff Daddy, and Sunshine has her hands full.
Enter sexy almost-old-flame Levi Ravinder and a hunky US Marshall, both elevens on a scale of one to blazing inferno, and the normally savvy sheriff is quickly in over her head. Now it’s up to Sunshine to juggle a few good hunky men, a not-so-nice kidnapping miscreant, and Doug the ever-pesky flasher. And they said coming home would be drama-free.
As a huge fan of Darynda’s Charley Davidson series, I was ecstatic to get a chance to read the first book in her new series even if it wasn’t urban fantasy which meant there was probably not going to be a Reyes! The one thing that I could be guaranteed was the snark that is a signature of everything Darynda writes, and all the crazy characters only she can bring to life. This first outing in Del Sol makes it clear that this series is going to be chock full of almost everything we love about her writing!
Sunshine Vicram returns to her hometown as the newly elected sheriff, no matter that it wasn’t an election that she had entered herself in, but hey it’s a job, right? Returning with her is her 14 year old daughter Auri and as a continuation of her parents’ influence in their lives, they move into an apartment/guesthouse built for her and her daughter on their property. Sun can’t blame them for their meddling as they had been trying to get her to return home ever since she left Del Sol after a traumatic incident as a teenager and then Auri’s birth.
Sun is not surprised that the people of Del Sol have not changed in the years she has been gone; her best friend Quincy is one of her deputies, Doug the Flasher is still active and the Dangerous Daughters still run the town. Another blast from the past is Levi Ravinder, her childhood crush who has she still has feelings for but their relationship is…complicated. Adding to this is the antagonism between Sun and Levi’s family, especially his sister Hailey whose son Jimmy is a good friend of Auri’s. Then Auri and Jimmy’s friend Sybil turns up missing and there are similarities to an incident in Sun’s own past which will drag her family and the town into the investigation.
On top of that investigation there is an AWOL deputy (maybe) and trouble at the high school involving Auri and her friend Cruz, a murder linked to Levi’s family and you can understand why Sun is having a bad day or two! While some of the mysteries are solved in this book there is still one major outstanding question at the end and like many of the Charley books you are left wondering WTF is happening and how long you will have to wait to find out what’s next. Since this book doesn’t even come out until April, we will be waiting a LONG time to find out!
Now comes the question of how this new series compares to Charley and should you read it? Obviously the big difference is this world (so far) doesn’t involve the grim reaper, Satan’s son, angels or demons. There is a little hint of something out of the ordinary possibly between Sun and Auri so it will be interesting to see if that goes anywhere in future books. But there is a lot of Darynda’s trademark humor and quirky characters that fans will enjoy, and of course the complex relationship between Sun and Levi is a definite draw!
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this early!