Boy, was I ever wrong.

Maggie Connors may hold a job that I personally find tedious, but there’s nothing bland about Maggie, or the situation she winds up in.

Poor Maggie is continually getting grief from her boss-from-hell, Arthur Riley. She’s in danger of losing her far from plush private office at Hamilton Securities if she doesn’t bring in some new accounts. She’s maxed her credit cards to help her parents purchase their retirement condo and the multi-million dollar Goldwyn account that she was depending upon to put her back in Arthur’s good graces turns out to be a bust.

A girl can’t help it if three million dollars floating around after the death of her wealthiest client, Cleon Cummings, seems too good to resist.

Things get sticky when IRS Special Agent Tim Gallen starts asking questions about Cleon’s death and his investigation leads him directly to Maggie. But Tim’s willing to work a deal. It seems Tim is under suspicion of murdering Cleon and Maggie’s his only hope to help him find out what really happened. If she agrees to help him, Tim will "forget" about the missing three million dollars.

A Tax Deductible Death is the first book in a new series and for any series to be successful it must have a likeable protagonist. We certainly have that in Maggie Connors. She has an acerbic sense of humor that I found appealing and no matter how tough the situation, Maggie is never a whiner. She’s the type of woman I’ll enjoy spending time with in future books, although I wouldn’t trust her with my portfolio.

At first glance, IRS agent Tim seemed far too uptight to be a good match for Maggie. But as the book progressed, it became clear there was more to Tim than a bunch of rules and regulations. Things began to heat up between them at the end of this book and I look forward to watching their relationship progress in future installments.

There are lots of twists and turns throughout the book and while I more or less guessed the resolution early on, I was never entirely certain I was right until the very end. In fact, the book was difficult to put down.

While the world of finance is still a bit of a yawn for me (and probably the reason I’ll never be rich), I’m looking forward to author Malinda Terreri’s next Maggie Connors mystery.

--Karen Lynch