After 15 years away, Nick Sullivan has
come home to make amends with his Aunt Lucia only to
find her murdered in her own
backyard. After his parents tragic death Nick
and his brother Sean were sent to live with their eccentric
aunt. Lucia seemed to have no time for 2 boys and even less
experience so it was Nick who was left to raise both himself
and Sean. No two brothers could be so different. Where Sean
lacked, Nick made up. Until the one fateful night when Nick's
life changed forever. But this trip home was supposed to be
for making amends. Finding his aunt murdered in her own gardens
caused a panic in Nick so strong that all he could do was flee
the scene. If he were found over the body, surly he would be
fingered as the murder and sent to jail, as many though should
have happened 15 years earlier. In his panic Nick runs to the
only person he feels will help him, his one time close friend,
Philippa Coxwell.
Philippa Coxwell is shunned by her upper crust
family for making the wrong decision to open a landscaping
business rather than finish law school. But more than that,
Philippa never really had the love of her family just for
the sake of being born a girl. Worse, her self-esteem suffered
as she grew into the girl who would be nicknamed as Fat Philippa.
15 years can do a lot for a girl though. Losing weight and
getting out from under her tyrannical father's thumb was a
start. It was forgetting her secret love for Nick Sullivan
that proved more difficult that she first expected. So it
was with great shock that she found him sitting on her porch
steps on the same day as her company went into the black for
the first time, signaling Phil that she was finally on her
way to independence. When Nick tells her what he found at
Lucia's house she can't keep herself from being dragged into
Nick's antics. But when Phil goes to investigate Lucia's house
under the pretense of a landscaping job, and finding no body,
both Nick and Phil realize that something rather strange is
going on in Lucia's house.
"Third Time Lucky" is a step into
a new direction for Ms Cross. While this story has all of
the key Cross elements for a charming romp through delightful
story, the presentation of it is unique. Philippa's character
is consistently told from first person while the rest of the
story it told third person. As well, each point of view is
in a different font so make it easier on the reader to define
Phil's and Nick's parts. This method was challenging in the
beginning but as I got into the story I found it was a fun
and different view of the story, one that probably couldn't
have been told any other way.
Phil's character was likable. She proved herself
a strong heroine and stayed strong through to the end. She
never once backed down, even to her father when the family
secret was let out of the bag. This secret was a pivotal pointing
Phil's life and ended up changing the ending I *thought* was
coming.
Nick's character was enjoyable as well. Once
the truth of what happened 15 years earlier had surfaced amends
could finally be made between Nick and his Aunt Lucia, and
the town law. While I would have loved to see more of Lucia
and her antics, I felt this story was a delight to read and
a page-turner. I found myself giggling aloud quite often.
For anyone just coming into Ms Cross's books, this story will
certainly we worthy of a good first impression. Well done!
