The Rock & Roll Queen of Bedlam by Marilee Brothers, is not your typical suspense novel.  To be honest it reads like but chick-lit, but not in a way that turns-off readers looking for a good mystery.  Allegra Thome is a teacher of dysfunctional teens by day, and when one of her students, Sara Stepanek goes missing, Allegra sets out on her own to try and find out what happened.  She’s aided in the search by her nephew and boyfriend of Sara, Nick.  Allegra who is still getting over a divorce is living with her grandmother and aunt and the three of them set out on the weekends to sing kareoke at an assisted living center.  Amid the chaos that comes with the tangled web of notes and clues that Sara left behind, Allegra has to deal with a DEA agent that loves to get on her last nerves and a creepy preacher who owns the local winery WWJD (What Would Jesus Drink).

Brothers has a really laid-back writing style and as we get to see the story from Allegra’s point of view, faults and all.  She’s working through a lot of her own problems, and having most of the rural Washington state town she lives in knowing her business is making it hard for her to work.  She definitely sticks her nose into more places than it belongs and several times throughout the story, that attitude and curiosity get her into all kinds of trouble.  Allegra doesn’t take herself too seriously though, and often I felt like I was laughing with her at the stupid situations she’d managed to get herself into, which is a hallmark of a fun character.

Like I said at the beginning, it does read a bit like a chick-lit novel, there is some romance, and lots of quibbling on Allegra’s part between who she really likes and why.  But the suspense starts to pile up as Allegra, Nick and Sloane (the DEA agent) start to unravel the clues and it’s it’s a quick and gripping read as it comes to the end.

The Rock & Roll Queen of Bedlam is available from Medallion Press this month, and you can find it in trade paperback at Amazon.

**Review product was provided by Medallion Press, and does not affect the outcome of this review.**